Achilles-X
by Arcangel742
Summary: A young Greek hero brings some realism to the X-men Evolution Universe. A hero who is a half-blood and a mutant emerges and changes the world as they know it.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights of any of these characters except the ones i created, if i did i'd be a whole lot richer.

Chapter 1

_Mysterious Youth_

It was a large metal domed room. Most of it was empty except for a walkway that came from a door marked "X". The walkway led to a monitor where a bald man in a wheelchair sat wearing a helmet which was also marked "X". The X-marked door opens and in comes a short hairy man with wild dark hair.

Logan walks up to Charles and says "Any progress yet Chuck?"

Charles nods. "No, nothing yet."

Logan growls. "He can't hide forever, he's gonna have to use his powers at some point."

Charles sighs. "Logan, how can you be sure? We haven't seen him since we left him in Alaska. How do you know it isn't someone new?"

Logan stares at him with surprise. "Cause Chuck, I know it's him. This is his kind of trail. But since Shield is on his tail it's only a matter of time before he slips."

Charles takes off the helmet and starts to exit the room "Well when he does Cerebro will notify me until then we will have to wait. In the mean time why don't you keep yourself busy with the Danger Room?"

"Yeah sure Chuck, will do." Logan replies

"Good" Charles exits.

As soon as the door closes Logan growls and unsheathes his claws with a 'snikt' and says "As long as I get my hands on you, I can wait…..Sabertooth."

**Brooklyn, New York**

A middle aged woman is in the kitchen watching the news while preparing dinner when suddenly "**This is Channel 7 eyewitness news reporter Kristen Thorn reporting to you live from downtown Brooklyn. Today would seem like a regular day to the average store clerk but a few hours ago the unexpected happened. A large hairy man ran in the store trying to avoid some sort of military operatives, the soldiers pursued the man into the store and the area became a warzone in an instant.**" She gestures to the damaged store behind her, "**As you can see the military operatives didn't leave much but destruction. This is one of many buildings that have suffered this fate.**" The reporter stops her report to check her communication link to make sure she is hearing this right. **"We've just gotten word that the mysterious hairy man is now in an open battle in Coney Island with the now identified operative group known as S.H.I.E.L.D. We are now trying to get live feedback."**

The middle aged woman gasps. 'I hope he doesn't try and do anything drastic, that's the last thing my heart needs right now'. But it was too late "he" had been watching the report and was already out the door before the woman could stop him. Even if she did get to talk to him she doubts she could have stopped her little but not so little boy.

**At the Xavier Institute for the Gifted**

Someone else was watching that same report, Evan Daniels, also known as Spyke. He was flipping through channels when he stumbled upon the news report and recognized the so called "hairy man". That could only be one of two people. Logan or Sabertooth. And since Logan is home and Sabertooth is on the run from what he heard, it is definitely Sabertooth. "Oh shit, LOGAN!"

Logan comes running in "What is it porcupine?"

Evan points to the TV "Check out the news man"

Logan looks at the TV and sees the commotion. After a few moments he realizes the situation. "Sabertooth" he mutters. He looks at Evan waiting for his response, "Go tell Scott, Jean and the Elf to suit up, we're going to Coney Island right now." Logan said.

**Coney Island, the Boardwalk**

Sabertooth had been running on the boardwalk for a while now and he's getting tired of running from Nick Fury, he's pretty sure he can take on his lackeys no problem.

Sabertooth comes to a halt and lets the shield agents surround him, they all point their guns at him. Sabertooth grins showing off his razor sharp teeth, he likes to let his enemies think they have a chance.

He pounces on one of them and knocks him out with a hook to the face; he kicks the one coming from behind in the face temporarily flooring him. This had been done so fast that the other soldiers couldn't react in time, but once they had a lock on him they fired away.

While on his way towards another soldier Sabertooth successfully dodged most of the shots but some got through, no matter that's what the healing factor is for. He only dodges them so they don't slow him down too much. Sabertooth dropkicks another operative down to the ground. From there he sweeps the legs from another operative and before the operative falls, he grabs his head and smashes it into the ground making sure he's out. Sabertooth then punches the last one in the gut knocking the wind out of him and then lays him out with a haymaker. Sabertooth then goes back to the one he floored moments ago. He picks up the weapon the operative was holding and aims it at his temple.

Sabertooth can see the fear in his eyes and that makes him grin. "Please! No! Don't kill me! I was just following orders!"

"Do I look like I care meat bag?" He goes to pull the trigger when all of a sudden, a kick to the face sends him flying. He goes right through the wooden floor. That hit dazed Sabertooth, he wasn't expecting it so he let his guard down.

He looks for the person who had the balls to interrupt his "speech", he sees a dark figure but his vision is still a little blurry. Is that the runt? "How bout you pick on someone your own size hairball" the dark figure says. Sabertooth growls, definitely not Wolverine.

**Aboard the X-Jet**

Piloting the X-jet is Logan, also known as Wolverine. In the Co-pilot seat is Scott Summers also known as Cyclops. Behind them is Jean Grey also known as Marvel girl and Kurt Wagner also known as Nightcrawler. And behind them is Evan.

They are on their way to Coney Island unaware that the situation is being "handled", "So what's the plan Logan?" asked Scott.

"Does anybody else find it weird that even though Scott is the leader of the X-men he still asks for a plan?" Evan said.

"I agree" Kurt added.

"Guys I asked him what the plan is because Sabertooth is personal for Logan and he knows the best way to handle a situation like this especially when that operative group Shield is involved." Scott said.

"So yeah what do you think Logan?" Jean said.

"We take out Sabertooth and we let Shield take him in, that's probably our best bet." Logan replied.

"Hey vhy does Shield get all zhe credit? Vhe do all zhe vork." Kurt folds his arms over his chest.

"Cause bub, we technically don't exist remember? We don't want to reveal mutants to the world just yet, plus the only reason we're here is because Shield doesn't seem to have anybody skilled enough to take him out." With that he unsheathes his claws to look at them "And I have a score to settle with him." he sheaths them again.

"Logan, do you even remember why you and Sabertooth don't like each other?" asked Jean

Logan shakes his head "Nope, can't remember. But I can tell ya one thing red, it's not something I'm gonna forgive him for."

There is a long awkward silence until Scott breaks it "So how long till we get there?" he asked

"Just a couple of minutes so be ready, and that goes for all of you" Logan said.

* * *

A minute passes by and they arrive at the Coney Island Boardwalk and what a site to see. The first thing they notice are all the rides that are right next to the boardwalk, most are landmarks which is why the rides are interesting, but what's really interesting is the fight that's going on at the boardwalk. Two figures seem to be going at it, surrounded by about a dozen unconscious Shield Agents.

"Vhoah check it out, someone is going toe to toe with Sabertooth, that's awesome!"

"Yeah, but he doesn't look like Shield." He looks at Logan, "so who is he?" Scott asked.

Logan glares at the dark figure fighting with Sabertooth and is intrigued "Scott land the X-jet" Logan said not paying attention to Scott's question.

"Why can't you do it?" Scott asked.

"Cause I said so shades now get to it." Logan replied. Logan continues to glare at the figure and can't help but wonder, 'who is he?'

**Coney Island, the Boardwalk 10 minutes ago**

"How bout you pick on someone your own size hairball" the dark figure says. Sabertooth grunts, 'There's no way that's Wolverine, he doesn't talk like that.' He rubs the spot where he was hit, 'He doesn't hit like that either. Those were not metal bones' Sabertooth thought. His vision begins to clear up but what he sees shocks him, "You're just a kid?" Sabertooth says with a shocked expression.

"Maybe, but a kid that's kicking your sorry ass" he says with a cocky grin as he gets into a fighting stance.

Sabertooth growls "Listen you little twerp I don't have time for this so why don't you make like a tree and get outta here" Sabertooth says angrily.

"Sounds to me like you're chicken" The youngster said grinning.

"GRRRRRRRRR" He growls, "THAT'S IT!" Sabertooth leaps for the youngster only for him to side step resulting with Sabertooth landing face first to the ground.

"Hah well I noticed you have quite a temper" he said just as Sabertooth got right back up to start swinging wildly but sadly nothing connected.

"Hey have you ever done this before?" he said mocking him.

"SHUT UP!" Sabertooth pounces hoping to pin him down but to no avail he dodges once again.

"C'mon you call that an attack?" before he can say anything else Sabertooth closes the gap between them and knees him in the stomach knocking the wind out of him. He then knees him in the face and uppercuts him sending him flying. The boy landed harshly on the wooden floor.

The youngster got up rubbing his chin where he was hit. 'Wow he actually hurt me, let alone hit me all together. That barely ever happens. This might have not been a good idea, but it's still fun.' He takes off his jacket and throws it aside.

He gets back into his stance, ready for the furry man's full onslaught….'furry man? No I gotta come up with something that's catchy if I want to really annoy him' he thought.

Sabertooth started to swipe with his sharp nail claws, most connected ripping up his clothing and opening up a few small cuts. 'Wow he's as fast as me too, I better watch'. He threw a haymaker only for the youngster to duck and come up with a strong uppercut sending him flying. He lands on his feet and jumps right back exchanging blows.

The youngster ducked under another haymaker but this time Sabertooth was prepared and he swept his legs from under him flooring him. Sabertooth tried to stomp the youngster in the chest but he rolled to his feet and sent a kick to Sabertooth's midsection. Sabertooth grabs the boy's leg and returns with his own kick to the midsection and connects. Attempting to take advantage of the situation Sabertooth threw a punch and the boy caught it. Sabertooth throws another one only for that one to be caught too, the youngster pushes him back and Sabertooth returns with a spin kick before he got too far away. Lucky for the youngster he was still too far away or that would have connected.

The youngster throws a hook but Sabertooth blocks it and returns with his own and connects. 'The kid's good but not good enough'. The hook dazzled the boy a little but he brushed it off.

The youngster starts throwing jabs trying to keep the hairy man on his toes, nothing connects. The youngster then notices some Shield Agents coming from behind Sabertooth, luckily the hairy man was too preoccupied at the moment to notice them. The Agents open fire on Sabertooth putting a couple of dozen bullets in him before his body dropped to the floor bleeding out a lot.

'Was that really necessary?' The youngster thought not knowing of Sabertooth's healing factor. But before he could do anything else the Shield agents show up pointing their weapons at him. One of the agents says "Put your hands in the air where I can see them, now!"

'Perfect, a stupid soldier, just what I needed' the youngster thought sarcastically. The boy looks at him with a puzzled expression "Excuse me? I just did your job for you, a thank you would be nice"

"I said put your hands in the air or I shoot!" the Agent says. Some muttering can be heard from the other Agents that would be hard for a normal person to hear but luckily the boy has good hearing.

"He's at it again" said Agent #A

"Why does he always have to make himself look tough at our expense?" said Agent #B

"He's not even being tough, he's just being a dick again" said Agent #C

"I know right" said Agent #A

"Be quiet! I'm in charge here!" said Agent #D

"C'mon Scott don't be such a Dick" said Agent #B

Agent #D ignored and focused on the boy again. "Last chance son put him down or I'll put you down what's it gonna be?"

'Did he just call me son? Oh he is so getting bitch slapped when I'm done with this. But if he wants to be retarded that's his problem, plus I don't wanna cause any more trouble' the youngster raises his hands in the air.

It only takes a second for Sabertooth to heal all his wounds and catch his breath, that's all he needs. Before the boy could react Sabertooth gets up with a mean hook and sends the boy flying into the wooden floor.

Before the Agents can shoot him again he is upon them, and takes them out swiftly. "Wow that was easier than I thought it would be." Sabertooth said scratching his head.

Sabertooth turns around just in time to see the boy exiting the hole he made. Sabertooth decides to take advantage and attack. Before the boy can figure out what's going on a hairy foot kicks him in the face launching him into a metal pole. 'ooowwwwww' is all the boy can think. This time when the boy gets up he keeps his eyes on Sabertooth but before he can regain his composure he is upon him again. The boy successfully blocked the first two punches but the third connected keeping him unbalanced. Then Sabertooth lifted him up like a bench press and slammed him into the wooden floor breaking right through it creating a new hole.

There was a lot of space where Sabertooth threw the boy so it was difficult to see him, he peaks his head in the hole for a second when two legs come out of the hole and grab him by the neck and slam him hard into the concrete floor below the wood in the hole. 'I knew those cement fillings were here for a good reason' he thought.

The youngster climbs out of the hole before the hairy man can snare him within the hole like he did. Sabertooth jumps out with a big bruise on his forehead and a very angry face.

"You will pay for that with your life boy!" Sabertooth said with hatred

The youngster grins, "Ok hair-ball, try this one on for size. Hyaaahhh!" The youngster jumps and piles kicks on Sabertooth in a bicycle motion as fast as he can before gravity kicks in. Which is right. About. Now. The youngster and Sabertooth fall to the ground.

'Well at least that was better than my last try' the boy picks himself up but so does the hairy man. "What was that?" asked Sabertooth

"It's a move I saw in a movie once, don't quite have the hang of it yet but I'm getting there. Now where were we" they start to exchange punches again when all of a sudden a jet shows up and lands nearby.

The youngster pays no attention but Sabertooth recognizes the vehicle and glares at it. 'I need to get out of here, fast!'

* * *

The X-men exit the X-jet ready to fight, "Ok X-men that other guy he needs help with Sabertooth, but keep in mind we don't know who this other chump is so stay sharp." Said Logan.

"Right" said the rest of the team simultaneously.

They come up to where the duo are fighting and what they see up close is….let's just say that they didn't expect Sabertooth to be fighting one on one with a teenager, of course they don't know that he's a teenager.

They all got a good look at him, he was about 6 feet tall, built like a linebacker, and he was wearing all black. Black jeans, black boots and a black shirt to top it all off (don't forget his Leather jacket that he threw aside). He had short black hair that went back in a way that made it look sort of spiky and from what they could see he appeared to have light blue eyes. In Jeans eyes he was a total bad boy and had the moves to back it up. Channeling Kitty Jean had to say that he was like seriously hot.

The facts had not escaped Scott either as his jealousy hits overdrive not that he would ever admit it. If it wasn't bad enough he had Duncan to deal with.

Logan could see Scott tensing up. He may not be a telepath but he knows jealousy when he sees it and Scott has had that issue as it relates to Jean for quite some time.

They all jump in, in their own way. The fight seemed more or less one-sided and didn't seem like it was going to last much longer. The dark haired youngster could keep up but not for long.

Evan shoots some spikes but forgets that the other guy is close so Kurt teleports to the dark haired youngster and teleports him out of the way.

"Whoa what are you guys?" he asked.

"Vhell explain later, let's take care of Sabertooth" Kurt said.

'Sabertooth huh? I'll remember that' the youngster thought to himself.

Logan unsheathes his claws "He's mine!" said Logan

Sabertooth throws a right hook, Logan blocks it. Then he throws a left hook, Logan blocks that too. Logan then jumps forward thrusting his claws into Sabertooth's chest to the point where they're sticking out a little bit from his back. "AAAAAHHHHHHHHH" he yells.

Sabertooth grabs Logan's hands, removes them from his chest, then he headbutt him and slashes his chest leaving four slash marks.

The dark haired youngster watches as Logan heals his wounds instantly. 'Whoa, I knew I healed fast but damn!'

Scott shoots Sabertooth with an optic blast from behind knocking him towards Logan who punches him right back. Jean then grabs Sabertooth midair with her telekinesis and slams him down to the floor, Evan was about to throw some spikes to pin him down when the dark haired youngster jumps and lands a solid hard kick to Sabertooth's face knocking him out.

The dark haired youngster picks up his leather jacket and puts it back on before turning to the crowd standing a few feet away from him. They begin to approach.

'Ok let's see. They're all dressed weird, they all seem to be different like me in a way, but they're all staring at me like I'm Justin Bieber, wait hold up…don't fans scream when they see Justin Bieber? I think I was hit harder in the head than I thought. I'll just play it by ear.'

They stop right in front of him.

"Dude you totally rock man, you just kicked Sabertooth's butt." Evan said, the rest of the group glares at him to shut up for now and leave the pleasantries for later.

"Um thanks?" The Dark haired youngster said not knowing what else to say at this point.

"So what's your story bub?" Logan asked.

"No story, I just saw him" he points to Sabertooth, "on the news and I wanted to stop him from hurting anybody." the Dark haired youngster admitted.

"Let me ask you something kid, do you have a special ability like us here?" Logan gestures to the group standing behind him.

"Well yes and no." the Dark haired youngster said with a puzzled face.

"Explain" Logan said.

"Well you could say that I was born a little different from all the other kids, I'm stronger, faster, smarter, and more agile, more or less an improved human being." the dark haired youngster said.

"So you are a mutant?" Kurt asked.

"What's a mutant?" The dark haired youngster asked.

"Mutants are humans that are born a little differently than the majority of humanity. They are born with what we label the x-gene. It is the key to the evolutionary process that is currently taking place amongst the human race. It tends to become activated during periods of stress, most commonly puberty. Once active the gene precipitates the sudden development of what can be extraordinary gifts of varying abilities." Said Jean in a fast pace.

The Dark haired youngster is more surprised about how fast she said that more than what she said.

"Way to go all nerdy on us Jean." Evan said giggling at her nerdy speech.

Jean glares at him, "I am not nerdy, I'm just….it's just that…Hugh!" she gets annoyed and looks the other way folding her arms over her chest. Evan and Kurt continue to giggle while Scott is getting even more pissed off. He realizes that this guy probably got a reaction out of her, not good for Scott's chances.

"Well I guess I am a mutant in that case. So what do I call you guys?" he asked.

"I'm Logan" he brings out his hand and the boy shakes it.

"I'm Scott" he said hiding his anger while bringing his hand out, the boy shakes it.

"I'm Kurt" he holds out his three fingered hand, the dark haired youngster looks at it and shakes it with enthusiasm and say "cool fur" Kurt smiles at the comment.

"I'm Evan" he shakes his hand.

The beautiful red head holds her hand out and says "Hi I'm Jean"

He takes the hand gently and says "nice to meet you"

"And you are?" she asked.

The dark haired youngster smiles and says "You can call me Dean"

Authors note: _Just to be clear, this story begins right after the fight with Juggernaut _


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

_Decisions_

**Coney Island, the Boardwalk**

"You can call me Dean" he said with a cocky grin. Just as he said that about a dozen more Shield Agents show up with a man with gray hair and an eye patch over his left eye chewing on a toothpick.

"Hold it right there Logan, or should I say Weapon X? Actually you're going by Wolverine now right?" the man said.

Logan growled "Fury, what took you so long? I figured you would have sent the Widow not some untrained punks to do you're dirty work."

"Agent Romanov is on another mission at the moment so I used what I had." Fury said.

Logan raises an eyebrow then smiles, "You sent her to watch Stark didn't you?"

"That's classified information." Fury says sternly.

Logan grunts "Whatever patch" he said.

"Anyways I'm not here to see your pretty face Logan" Fury said. The younger X-men laugh at that.

Logan ignores the comment and raises an eyebrow to that. "Then what do you want bub?"

"I want to make you an offer." Fury said gesturing to Dean.

"What kind of offer?" Dean said curiously.

"I watched you from far away kid, and let me tell you, I'm impressed. You almost took on one of the most dangerous people in the world single handedly. Do you know how hard it is to do that without any special training? Let's just say a normal person's chances are slim to none". Fury said. "You have potential kid, so much that one day you could be better than him" He says pointing to Logan "And he's supposed to be second best in the world.

The younger X-men were expecting a reply from that but to their surprise, nothing. Once Fury said second best the first thing that popped in Logan's head was one name…..'Steve'…..he really was the best. He was the only person who ever really beat him in a straight up fight. But never mind that now; those are thoughts for another day.

Logan growls, "Don't push it patch, yeah I admit that the kid's got potential and he can eventually be very good. With the right teacher, and the right team". He backs away to show the X-men. "But Shield doesn't fit that bill." He glares at Fury "They lie to you, keep secrets from you, and don't entirely trust you either. With us you won't get anything but total honesty, I guarantee that. Plus you'll be around people your own age. Join the X-men".

Dean looks at Logan, then turns to look at Fury. "Make your choice, I won't hold it against you whatever you do." Fury said.

Dean opens his mouth to say something but he gets interrupted by a certain agent.

"LOOKOUT SIR!" said Agent #D holding his weapon up at all the so called mutants. While Fury was having his conversation the rest of the Shield Operatives secured Sabertooth and woke up all the unconscious Shield Agents. Including Scott over here.

"Its ok sir I got your back, I'll cover your escape." Agent #D said shaking his gun nervously.

Fury sighs, "Corporal, what are you doing? These are friendly's."

"Sir did you see what those 'things' can do? They can take us out in a second!" Agent #D said.

When Logan hears 'things' he tenses up ready to slice the shit out of this…this…..this…..Dickhead(for lack of a better term). But before he can do anything Dean puts his hand on his shoulders and whispers "I got this one" and then he approaches Fury.

The three agents that accompany Agent #D come running to prevent him from doing anything stupid, oh wait too late.

"Scott what are you doing? You're going to jeopardize the Colonel's recruitment." Agent #A said.

"Yeah, if we get this kid he could be trained to be better than Agent Romanov." Agent #B said.

"Who's Agent Romanov?" Agent #D said.

All three agents A, B, and C slap themselves for what they're hearing. "Ok there is no way you don't know who the Black Widow is, you've seen her on the Helicarrier plenty of times." Agent #C said.

"You know, female agent, scarlet red hair, big breasts, curves like you can only dream of. Ring a bell?" Agent #A said.

The sudden realization hits Agent #D, "Oh yeah huh heh heh heh heh" Agent #D starts to daydream and drool. Agent #B smacks the back of his head, "Yeah only in your dreams Scott, the only person close enough to do 'that' kind of stuff with her is either Fury because he's the man or Hawkeye because he works with her so much, but I heard he's kind of an asshole."

Agent #D snaps out of it. "Hey I can be an asshole."

"No you can't, but trust me when I say this, you will always be a dick" Agent #C said, The three agents laugh out loud.

Dean comes up to Fury and says, "Hey Fury tell ya what, if you get rid of him." Dean points at Agent #D "Then maybe I'll consider your offer."

Fury sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose and says, "I can't fire him…..he's my nephew."

Dean looks at the Agent but doesn't see the resemblance. "Oh well" Dean walks away and comes up to Logan "I was gonna go with you anyways, I just wanted to see if he would get rid of him."

Logan smiles "its ok kid don't sweat it. Although I was surprised to hear that the chump is Fury's nephew."

"You did say that he kept the truth a lot." Scott said.

"Well there's the proof for ya." Logan said. "Now then, Dean, you should probably tell your parents what happened here and what plans you have. You do have parents don't you?" Logan asked. He would hate it if the kid was an orphan and he just invaded his privacy.

Dean looks at him weirdly, "Um yeah, I got parents. I'll tell them what happened here but can you guys come over tomorrow and explain the whole….what was it…..X-men thing?"

"Sure kid we'll be there, what time is good for you?" Logan asks.

"About two o'clock is good." Dean replies.

"Ok then we'll come, assuming we find out where you live." Logan adds.

"I'll just give you my address, it's only a few blocks away."

Logan nods "Ok let's get a move on then." The X-men approach the X-Jet.

"So um, you really are joining us huh?" Jean asks with a smile.

Dean smiles back and says "Seems so" They all board the X-Jet.

Dean turns around and yells out "Hey Fury!"

Fury turns towards him wondering what he wants.

"Whenever you wonder why I didn't join your group just remember, it's because of him!" he yells out pointing at Agent #D.

Fury mutters a few curse words under his breath but all Dean can hear now is, "Damn it Scott"

Dean smiles and walks away.

The X-jet takes to the air and leaves.

* * *

Dean finally reached his house.

'Now how am I going to explain all this to Mom and Dad? This is just so much to absorb, even for me. Well I guess the best thing I can do now is just tell them everything and hope Dad doesn't get another heart attack. The last time was a disaster, Dad almost died.' Dean frowns as he approaches the door.

'C'mon stop worrying, that'll never happen, Dad is the strongest guy I know and he is gonna live for a long time. At least until he sees your kids.' With that in mind he cheers up and goes to open the door but stops.

'I'll let him sit down anyways just in case' he then opens the door and walks in. The minute he closes the door he hears "KOSTA!" he flinches, 'What the hell happened now?' he wonders. He walks up the steps and goes into the living room where his mother is waiting for him with a sad face, the minute she sees him she embraces him in a hug and says "Thank god you're alright" while tearing.

"Mom what's going on?" Dean asks oblivious to the TV showing the news. His mother looks at him angrily and says "Don't give me that, look at the TV" she points to the flat screen on the wall.

Dean now realizes what she was stressing about, 'It's me' he thinks. The news report is showing a replay of the fight that happened not so long ago with that guy Sabertooth. Dean can only think of one word to say "….Fuck…"

**At the Institute 10 minutes earlier**

The rest of the x-men that stayed behind had been watching the news hoping to get live footage of the fight with Sabertooth. The whole X-men group would have been overkill if they all went so some stayed behind. Kitty had stayed behind because they already had enough firepower, and Rogue stayed because she didn't want another incident where she has to shave her legs and get a haircut, after she absorbed Sabertooth last time she looked like a werewolf.

The two teenage girls' focus was on the TV when they hear, "**We now report to you live from the scene**" the image switches to a lower quality one that is moving towards what appears to be a boardwalk by a beach.

A lady appears "**This is Channel 7 eyewitness news reporter Kristen Thorn reporting to you live from Coney Island where as you can see there are about a dozen unconscious Shield Operatives and-**"The lady pauses to assess what she is seeing.

The camera turns from the unconscious Shield operatives to what appears to be Sabertooth fighting a dark haired youngster. "**Ladies and gentlemen, unless I am mistaken, you are looking at the so called 'hairy man' who trashed all those buildings battling it out with a…..a dark haired youngster? I would have expected the Shield Operatives to be fighting to capture this man"**

"Whoa who is that?" Kitty asked interested in the mystery guy.

"I don't know but he's good." Rogue admires the courage the dark haired youngster is showing; she likes that in a guy.

"Yeah plus he is like totally hot" Kitty said excitingly. Kitty looks at Rogue and sees she is interested in this. "What do you think Rogue?"

Rogue looks at her then back at the screen, "Yeah a guess he looks kandha cute." She says optimistically, she couldn't get a really good look at him considering he was always moving, plus now he's in a hole.

Kitty raises an eyebrow and asks "You guess? C'mon Rogue you can't say tha-"

"What does it matta Kitty?! It's not like we're ever going to see him in real life anyways!" she shouts angrily.

Kitty then sighs. She had totally forgotten about her situation and touching people. It must be so hard to resist the urge to touch somebody sometimes. Kitty could never really feel her pain but would always sympathize with her. She wouldn't tell her of course because Rogue hated it when people showed her sympathy.

Just then on the screen you could see the X-jet landing a few meters away from the fight but before the camera could catch the X-men coming out of it someone blocked the view, "**Excuse me Ma'am this is a restricted area, for your own safety please evacuate.**"

You could see on the screen that a Shield Agent was dragging her away from the fight. "**Hey you can't do this to me! What about freedom of the press! The people deserve to know what is going on!**"

"**By order of Director Nick Fury, this area is to be shut down of all civilians. That means you too Ma'am**" The Shield Agent said.

"**Fine, you win for know but this isn't over with!**" she yells out. She fixes her outfit before returning to the camera. "**This has been Channel 7 eyewitness news Kristen Thorn reporting to you live, have a good day.**" the broadcast goes back to the news team and the girls lose interest.

Rogue gets up off the couch "I'm going to ma room" she walks away. Kitty watches her walk away and thinks 'One day Rogue, one day you'll find a way to finally touch somebody and when you do you will finally be happy'

**Dean's House in Brooklyn**

"Wow" Dean's Mother said.

Dean had spent the last hour explaining the events that had happened earlier today. Starting from when he left, to the fight with Sabertooth, to the short team-up with the x-men, to the choice he had to make between Shield and the X-men, all the way up to when he got home.

"So where's Dad?" Dean asked.

Dean's Mom sipped her coffee and said, "He's in the bedroom resting, that news report gave him quite a shock so I helped him to bed. Who knows what would have happened if he stayed up to worry with me."

That statement made Dean feel guilty and it showed on his face. The last thing he wants to do is hurt Dad. Just then the bedroom door opens and Deans father walks out with a cane to help him walk. He comes to a stop at the table, pulls out a chair and sits. Dean is the first one to speak "So how are you feeling?"

"Much better now that I napped, so what's up kiddo, I saw you on TV." he says optimistically

"Some guy was tearing up the neighborhood so I left to take him down." Dean said.

That makes his father smile "That's my boy, just next time make sure to tell your mother where you're going so she doesn't have a panic attack."

Dean raises an eyebrow, "You're not mad at me?" Dean asks with a confused face.

His father shakes his head and says "No way kid, you did the right thing. If I had your body I would have too." That makes Dean laugh. His Dad could always make him laugh.

"Now I couldn't help but overhear some of your conversation with mom, so what about these X-men guys?" His Dad asked.

"What about them?" Dean replied.

"Are you seriously considering joining their group" he asked.

"Well before I or we decide anything I arranged for them to come over tomorrow so they can explain to us thoroughly what their really all about." Dean said.

"Well that's goo-"his father gets interrupted "Oh My God! I have to clean the house!" his mother gets up off the chair and runs for the broom to start sweeping the house.

"Well I guess you should have seen that one coming." his dad says sarcastically and they share a laugh.

**At the Institute**

The X-men had just returned from their little 'encounter' with Sabertooth and Dean. The first thing Logan goes to do is find Charles and explain to him what happened and tell him about the possible new recruit he met. The rest of the X-men go into their rooms to change into their normal attire.

Logan makes his way towards Charles's office where he usually is if he's not using Cerebro or out doing something else. Logan knocks on the door, "Come in Logan" 'that is still creepy when he does that' he thought.

Logan walks in and spots the professor sitting by his desk. "Was the mission successful?" The Professor asked.

"Yeah, it went better than expected. We got there in time to stop the old fur ball and Shield took him in. Also we might have a new recruit on our hands."

The last part intrigues the Professor, "Yes I saw the live news report, and I'm guessing you're referring to the young man in the dark outfit." He replied.

Logan raises an eyebrow and says, "There was a news report? I didn't know about that, they must have been there right before we got there."

Charles nods, "Yes, Shield secured the area of all civilians. Apparently Shield doesn't want the mutants to be revealed yet either."

"Yeah, must be. So you saw the kid on the news huh?" Logan asked.

The Professor nods, "Yes, and he seemed to be doing a good job of handling Sabertooth. Are you certain he is a mutant?" he asked.

"Honestly Chuck I have no idea. But he seems like one, and I don't think a normal kid can tango with Sabertooth." Logan said.

"Yes you might be right. When can we see the boy?" The Professor asked.

"We actually scheduled a meeting tomorrow." Logan replied.

"Good" Charles adds. "We will pay him a visit tomorrow then and hopefully the boy's parents will understand our cause."

"Alright then, I'm gonna go clean up." Logan adds before leaving.

"That would be best." Charles says with a smile. As Logan exits he can't help but think 'If this kid does join it will definitely be interesting having him on the team'.

**Dean's room**

Dean was getting ready to go to sleep. But how could he? There was so much on his mind. The whole "X-men" thing sounded intriguing, plus from what Dean could see they will probably end up chasing more bad guys which means…more fights…Oh yeah. But on the other hand he would have to leave home, away from his friends, away from his parents, away from his mom's awesome cooking, 'aahhhhhh this is too confusing' he thinks.

He would get to finally figure out why he's so different than the average kid. But is it worth it? Damn! Becoming UFC champion was easier than this. Dean looks over to the wall of his room where two swords hang and they form an X. The swords were custom made to resemble Greek harpe swords. Basically straight short swords that are meant for close combat. But those are special; they were a gift for his birthday from his parents. Luckily his Dad knew a guy that practices old fashioned forging and made them for him, out of Titanium. Best birthday gift ever. Dean had practiced with them almost every day since then and likes to think that he is fairly good with using them. He thinks on whether or not to consider the "X" a sign. 'Nah. I'll just decide on this tomorrow' he thought.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

_To Join Or Not To Join?_

**At the institute **

Today was a rather slow day. It was Saturday so after their daily Danger Room session the X-men decided to just stay in. It was just one of those days. The Professor and Logan were getting ready for their little trip to Brooklyn. Originally the plan was that only the Professor and Logan would go but the Professor was having second thoughts about that. He thought that it would be more appropriate if he brought at least one student, but whom? 'I'll ask Logan' the Professor thought as he approached Logan's room. He comes up to the door and knocks.

"Yeah, come in" The Professor hears. He opens the door and sees that Logan is all ready to leave.

"Ah, Logan. I see you're ready to depart." The Professor said.

"Alright then let's go." He motions for the door.

"Wait." the Professor stops him.

Logan looks at him "What is it?"

"I've decided to bring along a student with us." The Professor replied.

"Who?" Logan asked.

"Well I was hoping you could help me with that. The problem is I'm not sure who would be most appropriate." he said.

Logan takes a second to think about that one, who? Definitely not one of the younger twerps because they talk too much. Rogue on the other hand doesn't talk enough. Scott didn't seem to like Dean very much from what he could see, he really has to work on that jealousy thing he has for Jean. And that just leaves Jean, she did seem to like Dean.

'So I guess Jean is the best way to go' Logan thinks. "I say Jean."

"Excellent, I will inform her." The Professor rolls away towards Jean's room.

"Yeah, I'll just be waiting by the X-van" Logan leaves too.

The Professor comes by Jeans room, her door is open so he peeps in. He spots her standing up brushing her hair and at the same time she is levitating her hand held mirror with her telekinesis. The Professor smiles, he likes to see his students making good use of their powers.

"Jean may I have a word with you?" He asked.

Jean looks over to him, "Yeah, sure Professor" she continues to brush her long red hair.

"I would like for you to accompany me and Logan to Dean's house." he said in a happy tone hoping she agrees.

At the mention of Dean Jean stops brushing her hair and momentarily freezes, the hand held mirror drops but luckily she catches it before it drops to the floor and breaks. "Um yeah, sure, I would be glad to come along." Jean says with a smile.

The Professor smiles at her response and says "Good, see you by the X-van in five minutes" he leaves.

Jean puts her hairbrush and hand held mirror on her desk. Dean. She hadn't stopped thinking about him since yesterday. The way he looked, the way he moved, the way he talks. Oh he was just so 'yummy'. No, she shouldn't think that way, she has Duncan.

Now then, 'what should I wear?' she thinks. 'Should I wear something casual or something nice? I don't want to appear too eager, I'm gonna go with casual'. Her usual pink top with beige pants will do. Basically what she is wearing. She makes her way towards the garage where the Professor and Logan are probably waiting for her.

**Dean's house**

Dean as usual woke up with the sunrise. This would be around five o'clock in the morning give or take. Since the time for sunrise varies depending on the time of year Dean Sleeps with his shade open so when the sun does rise it shines brightly in his room waking him up. It's cool to have an alarm clock that you know will never fail. Dean started with his daily routine, one thousand push-ups and one thousand sit-ups. Finger push-ups to be exact, he was still using two hands for those but soon he would make the transition to one hand. The sit-ups he did while hanging from a chin up bar, that took a while to get used to. After that he went for a sprint. Most people go jogging but not Dean, he thought jogging wasn't tiring enough plus he could sprint for a long time without rest. His usual route was to sprint to the Verrazano Bridge and back as fast as he could. It took him a while but after a few weeks he could do it within 10 minutes, now even less. And that's where his daily routine ends. Since it's the weekend when he gets home from his daily sprint he goes in the basement where he likes to mix it up on his heavy bag and speed bag for an hour. If it were a weekday he would wait to come home from school to lift weights. After he's done in the basement he goes to the roof where there's enough space for him to practice his technique. He would mostly practice his mixed martial arts since he's more or less an expert since he's an ex-champ. Although mixed martial arts aren't the only types of fighting he knows, even though mixed martial arts includes several styles.

Dean had some knowledge of Jeet Kune Do. Last year for spring break Dean went to California to find Dan Inosanto so he could plead to be taught what Dean considers "The greatest style of them all". Dean was a crazy Bruce Lee fan; he used to watch all his movies when he was a kid. Of course he still does from time to time. Learning from Dan was a whole new experience for Dean. There were so many aspects of Jeet Kune Do that he needed to learn, but there was only so much one could learn in a week. A lesson he will never forget is "Be like water". That must have been the main rule or something because the minute Dean stiffened up even for a second he would hear it again. As a result now whenever Dean fights his motions are more fluid than before. But sadly like all good things, everything comes to an end, Dean had to leave and he doubted if he would ever get the chance to do something like that again. Right before Dean left though he was given a gleam of hope. But that's a story for another time.

Dean finishes his workout and checks his iPhone to see what time it is, its 1:30. 'I've got enough time to shower' he thinks. He makes his way into the house to get what he needs to shower, staying out of his mother's way of course because once she is in her "cleaning mode" you don't want to bother her. His Dad was sitting on the couch reading his newspaper while watching ESPN for the latest news in sports, as usual. Besides that nothing else was going on. The house had gotten quite empty over the years; all his siblings have either moved out or are married with children.

Sam, the oldest sibling, has a wife and two kids. He became a history Professor at Brooklyn College. Chris (the second oldest) is married with one kid, for now, and became a Kindergarten teacher. Then comes Katherine or Kat, she isn't married but is dating someone at the moment. Kat was into fashion design so she goes to The Art Institute of Charlotte. When Dean was younger the house used to be full of commotion all the time, now it was quiet, a little too quiet for his taste. Maybe it's for the best to go with the X-men. Mom and Dad have wanted to go on a vacation for years and this would give them the perfect opportunity.

**The X-van**

"Are we there yet?" Jean asked impatiently. They had been driving for about two hours give or take.

Logan sitting by the driver seat nods, "Yeah it's just around the corner." He replied.

"Good, now remember Jean, be on your best behavior." The Professor says hinting towards something.

"Yes Professor." She said. 'As if I didn't know already' she thinks.

'I'm just making sure' he says positively.

The van stops in front of Dean's house. "Ok, were here." Logan says as he comes out the door. Jean comes out of the van and takes a good look at the area. 'Not the best neighborhood I've ever seen but not the worst either' she thinks. Logan helps Charles out of the van and they all come to a stop by the door.

"Jean would you please" The Professor says meaning 'ring the doorbell'. Jean walks up the couple of steps in front of the door and rings the doorbell. A slight Ding-Dong can be heard from outside.

* * *

A Ding-Dong was heard inside the house. Dean's mom stiffens up, "Oh no I haven't even done all the laundry yet." she pleads.

"Mom I don't think they're gonna inspect our laundry and judge us on that" Dean says sarcastically.

His mother looks at him sternly and says "How do you know that?"

Dean just looks at her with a blank expression; his mother sighs and then embraces him in a hug. "I'm just worried" she said.

Dean rubs her back to comfort her and says "Yeah I know, now go sit with Dad. I'll go get the door". He lets go of her and he goes down the stairs to open the door. He opens the door and sees Logan, Jean, and a bald guy in a wheelchair. 'Hmmm, that might be an issue.' He thinks as he opens the outside door.

* * *

Jean waits after she rings the doorbell. Then the inside door opens revealing Dean dressed in grey sweatpants and a black shirt that has "Subway" style writing on it except instead of saying "Subway" it says "Submit".

Dean opens the outside door and greets them "What's up guys, how's it going?" He offers his hand to Logan, Logan shakes it, "Logan" he says. He offers his hand to Jean with a smile, she shakes it "Jean" he says. He then offers his hand to the Professor "You I don't quite know yet" he says sarcastically.

The Professor takes his hand and shakes it, "My name is Professor Charles Xavier".

The sudden realization hits Dean and he says "So you're the guy that runs the show huh?"

The Professor nods, "Yes I am the one who founded the Institute for the gifted."

"Cool" Dean says, "Now um, just letting you know, we don't have a ramp." Dean says with a little embarrassment. "But I have an idea though." He looks to Jean, "Jean you have telekinesis powers right?"

Jean nods, "Yeah, why?"

Dean points to the lower roof, "Do you think you could levitate us up there?" He had two roof levels. One was the same as the second floor but the other went one higher.

Jean looks to the Professor 'Is that ok?' she mentally asks him. The Professor looks around, the streets and sidewalks are empty, he looks back to Jean 'It's alright Jean, go ahead'.

Jean looks back at Dean and says "Sure, I can do that. Hold on" She gestures her arms like they're lifting something and they all slowly rise above the ground until they are set down on the lower roof where there are tables and chairs.

"Wow that was cool." Dean said enthusiastically. Jean smiles and brushes her hair behind her ear.

"Ok I'll be right back, take a seat and wait here." He says before he jumps off the roof with a flip.

"Whoa" Jean says. 'He's good' she thinks.

Logan looks over to Charles and says "So what do you think so far?"

"He definitely is an interesting young man, although he seems wilder than what we're used to." Charles replied.

Logan nods "Definitely", and just as he says that the door to the house opens out comes Dean and presumably his parents. Dean steps aside to let his parents come forward to meet their guests. They greet each other shaking hands and then sit down.

The Professor starts things off, "Alright then, let me simply start with what I'm here for. I have a proposition for you." He said, "I wish for Dean to attend my institute for the same reasons all my other students attend. My school is a place where they can accept their gifts, learn to control them and use them responsibly without fear of judgment."

"My question is how do we even know if he is a mutant?" Dean's father asked.

"Well he does seem to have supernatural abilities from what I've seen and heard." Charles added.

"Well let's just say he isn't, does that mean you would kick him out?" Dean's father asked.

"No, I would never do such a thing. If Dean decides to join us then mutant or not he can stay if he wishes." Charles replied.

That last statement reassures their fears. At least now he can be with other "different" teenagers his age, even if he's not a mutant.

"Will he be able to visit once in a while?" Dean's mother asked.

"Yes of course, he can leave for a visit whenever he chooses to." Charles replied.

"What about his studies?" Dean's mother asked.

"He will be enrolled in school nearby my Institute so he can continue his studies." Charles replied.

Dean's parents feel a relief. They look at Dean sitting down next to them, "The rest is all up to you kiddo, what do you want?" He asks his son.

Dean just sits there thinking on it. He heard the adult's point of view, but not the teenager point of view. He could just ask Jean right here and now…no, not here. He would rather get her away from the adult pressure and get the real answer out of her.

"Hey Professor, do you think you can stay for a couple of hours to let me think on it? Plus my Mother is making dinner and there is plenty to go around." He said trying to bait him into staying longer.

The mention of food catches their attention, they hadn't eaten since breakfast. They didn't have anything else to do today so what the heck, "Sure, I don't see why not" Charles said.

"Ok then I'll leave you guys to talk then." Dean walks over to Jean and says "Hey let's leave the adults to do the talking huh?" and starts walking towards the stairs that lead to the upper roof.

"Ok" she follows him up to the roof. They stand at the edge of the roof looking over the city. "Wow it's beautiful up here; I can even see the buildings in Manhattan."

Dean looks in the same direction, "Yeah it's pretty nice, back in the old days you used to be able to see the twin-towers as clear as day." Dean says with a tiny bit of sadness because of what he is referring to.

"That must have been nice. So you hang out up here often?" Jean asked.

"Well I usually come up here to practice my fighting technique, there's plenty of space to move plus I can concentrate without interruptions." Dean replied.

"Yeah about that, how did you get so good? It usually takes years of practice to get as good as you from what I've seen." Jean asked.

"Tell you what, I'll tell you if and when I come to your school. Ok?" Dean asked.

"Ok. So am I the first girl you've brought up here?" She asked with a smile.

"Sadly no, somebody beat you to it." Dean said sarcastically.

Jean pretends to bangs her hand at the edge of the roof "Darn" she replied with her own sarcasm. They share a laugh.

Once they stop laughing Dean spots Jean rubbing her stomach. "So, are you hungry?" Dean asked.

Jean looks at him and says "You have no idea, I haven't eaten since breakfast. And that was around ten o'clock. I don't think I can wait for your mom's cooking. No offense."

Dean smiles, "None taken. I guess we can go and have a bite to eat before dinner is ready. So is there something specific you want?" He asks.

"Well this is your neighborhood; take me to a nice spot." Jean said.

Dean thinks for a second. "I know the perfect place. Let's go."

"Wait, hold on. Shouldn't we tell the Professor?" She asks

"Nah, he's probably too busy talking. So let's go" Dean Motions for the stairs but then stops. He turns around and says "Actually I know a quicker way down". Dean picks Jean up bridal style and before she can say anything he jumps off the roof.

"Oh my god!" Jean says mid air; she wraps her arms around his neck closes her eyes and clutches him tight. Dean bends his knees as he lands for a softer landing. Even after they land Jean is still clutching Dean from the surprise of the jump.

"Um, you can let go of me now Jean" Dean said.

Jean opens her eyes and realizes they're safely on the ground. Jean blushes, "Oh yeah, um sorry" she says as Dean sets her down. "Next time you do that though, give me a warning."

"Sure." Dean said as they walked away.

**At the institute**

All the teens in the house had been hanging out in the lounge area for awhile. Except for Scott, he stormed off when he heard Jean left to recruit that guy from the other day. The rest were just more or less chilling. Evan was flipping through the channels; there was nothing good on today. Kurt, Kitty and Rogue were sharing a conversation. The topics would change from time to time. The subject of the battle with Sabertooth came up.

"So like what was the other guy like up close?" Kitty asked referring to Dean.

Evan lowers the TV volume at the mention of Dean. "Oh he was just awesome man" Evan said.

"Ja, he was fighting Sabertooth all by himself." Kurt said.

"He sounds like he's a good fighter." Rogue said.

"I wonder if he can take on Logan." Evan wonders out loud.

"I don't know about zhat, Logan can use his adamantium claws." Kurt explains.

"Oh yeah, but what if he didn't use them though? Man that would be a sick fight." Evan said.

"Ah'm not sure about that, ya'll know how Logan is" Rogue says.

"He's the best at what he does." They all say simultaneously.

"But c'mon, you have to admit that would be sick right?" Evan asks.

"I'm more interested in seeing him up close and personal." Kitty says imagining what Dean is like in real life.

Evan and Kurt shake their heads, girls and their fantasies.

"We'll just have to see what he's really like when he gets here." Rogue said before leaving the other teens in the lounge.

**Later that day at Dean's house**

Dean had taken Jean to eat some traditional Brooklyn style pizza. Jean had been impressed with their pizza, it was probably the best pizza she ever had. Dean had gotten to asking her about the institute and from what he heard it sounded like a cool place to live.

While they were out the Professor and Logan had a long conversation with Dean's parents. They had mostly discussed their Greek origins and how they spent about seven years living there. When Dean and Jean returned they had dinner, after that they prepared to leave and are now outside saying their goodbyes.

"Well Charles, it was nice meeting you" Dean's father shakes the Professor's hand "you too Logan." he shakes Logan's hand.

"Likewise, thank you for the delicious dinner." he shakes Dean's mother's hand.

The Professor rolls up to Dean and says "Dean, let me know when you've decided. I gave your parents my number, you can call anytime."

"Will do" Dean said. Jean came up to Dean to say her goodbye. "Well I guess this is it, it all depends on you coming if were gonna ever hang out again." She says sadly.

"Yeah, it does." Dean says as he waves goodbye, 'oh well there goes that, I don't know if I can make a decision or not. If I don't make it now I might not make it at all. What to do. Yes. No. Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know. Fuck it; you gotta live spontaneously once in a while.' He thinks.

Just as the Professor is about to enter the van he hears "Professor Wait!" he turns around to find Dean coming up to him.

"I have my answer" Dean says.

"And?" the Professor asks.

"I'm in" he says with a smile.

All three guests smile at the response, "Excellent, when do you wish to arrive?"

Dean thinks about it for a second, "How does tomorrow sound?"

The Professor is shocked at the boy's response, "Tomorrow? So soon?" the Professor asks.

"I mean if you don't want me to that's fine" Dean Replies.

"No, no, please. As you wish. I will arrange the school exchange as soon as possible" the Professor said.

"Good, see ya tomorrow then." Dean waves to him.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

_The New Guy_

**At the Institute**

Everyone was excited today. A new recruit. Usually Sundays were boring but today was special. Rogue, Kitty, and Storm were the only ones who have never seen Dean up close. So they had no idea what to expect. There was also an issue that they had no idea when he would be arriving, or how. Did he even know how to get here? All questions that would soon be answered. In the meantime the Professor was doing his best to enroll Dean into Bayville High as soon as possible, preferably by tomorrow.

The rest of the X-men had been doing random things. Scott was washing his car as he always did on Sundays. Jean was finishing up her studies, normally she does the last of it on Saturdays but due to the unexpected trip she went on she had to postpone doing them. Kurt had nothing to do so he was helping Scott. Kitty was on her laptop somewhere writing another one of her autobiographies. Evan was skateboarding around the mansion. Rogue was in the library reading a random book.

All of a sudden they all hear the Professor speaking 'Could you all please gather in my office'. They all stop what they're doing and make their way to the Professor's office. "Now then, I just got off the phone with Dean's parents and apparently he left about two hours ago. This means he should be here any minute." The Professor said.

Before he could say anything else he senses a strange mind approaching the gate, he looks out his window and spots a dark figure on a motorcycle outside the gate. 'I didn't know he drove', "That must be him at the gate" he says, "Everyone please gather by the entrance to greet our new recruit" he tells them.

**On the road towards the institute**

Dean had been riding for a good two hours now so he should be getting close. Dean thinks back to earlier today as he left. His mom cried, as expected. His dad was cool about everything, also expected. He said bye to his friends over the phone or in some cases over facebook because he couldn't reach them. The packing didn't take long, he didn't need that many things besides some clothes to last a few weeks plus he fit a bunch of things on his motorcycle. Dean comes to a stop by a gate to what should be the Xavier Institute; it says so on Google maps plus it's written on a metal plate right by the gate. But there wasn't any kind of description when he looked the place up, probably to protect their image.

The metal gate suddenly opens, 'That's kind of cool' he drives up the driveway while checking out the scenery. The mansion seemed to be right next to the ocean and next to the woods. A perfect place for peace and quiet. Dean comes to a stop in front of the Mansion. He takes off his helmet and picks up his duffle bag with his few belongings. 'I'll just leave it right here for now, it's a closed off place anyways'. Dean fixes his hair making sure his helmet didn't mess it up too much and makes his way for the front door. Dean goes to open it when suddenly it opens by itself, 'Total Adams Family rip-off' he thinks before entering the Mansion.

* * *

Everyone had gathered by the entrance, waiting for the new guy. The Professor comes rolling in, "Everyone, I would like you all to meet our newest member" The front doors open and in comes a tall dark haired young man. "Dean".

Dean had been wearing a similar outfit to the one he wore against Sabertooth, except this one was not dusty and torn; he was also wearing a white v-neck T-shirt instead of black, and he was wearing sunglasses that hid his eyes. Dean takes his sunglasses off revealing his light blue eyes and says "Sup".

"Oh wow," Kitty squeaks had almost literally melted where she stood, 'Oh my god he is so hot!' she thought to herself as she ogled him.

Even Rogue couldn't help but stare at him slightly but she still thinks Scott is cuter. Now if only Scott would look at her instead of fixating on little miss perfect redhead.

"Now, Dean, try not to get too concerned over anything," the Professor advises. "Take your time, settle in. No one's judging you. We don't judge people here. Though we do have rules here and we expect you to follow them."

"Yeah, I just hope they're nothing too kiddy." Dean said.

"Yes, well, if you need something cleared up ask anyone."He looks at Storm, "Storm, would you please show Dean where his room is?" The Professor asked.

Storm waved her hand towards the staircase, "This way" she started going up the stairs and Dean followed the snow white haired lady to his new room.

Everyone else waited till he was out of sight to talk. "Jean you seriously undersold him," Kitty scolds her friend. She means that he was just wow. Six foot, smooth dark hair, and dreamy light blue eyes you could just drown in and even under the leather jacket he was wearing the broad shoulders were clear to see.

* * *

Dean comes to a stop inside his room; it has a lot more space than his last room which makes it all that much better. He liked having plenty of space in his room, it made it easier to do his workouts and place his things without worrying about them getting in the way.

"This will be your room while you stay with us." Ororo said.

"Cool" he said bluntly.

"Breakfast is at seven by the way." Ororo said before leaving.

'Seven huh? That should give me enough time to do my morning exercise' Dean thought to himself. Dean places his duffle bag on the bed, 'I'll unpack later, time to explore a little.'

Dean quietly walks through the corridors, peeking into every room he passes by, wouldn't want to mix up the bathroom with a bedroom you know. As Dean is looking around he hears a **'bamf'** sound and sees someone appear out of nowhere from the corner of his eye. On reflex Dean sends out a punch that hits Kurt square in the face.

"Oooowwww! Vhat vhas zhat for?" Kurt says while rubbing his forehead where a bruise will form but won't really show because of his blue fur.

"Whoops, you kind of surprised me there, I'm not used to people dropping in out of nowhere." Dean said.

"Remind me not to do zhat with you ever again." Kurt said rubbing his forehead.

"I'm sure you'll remember for next time. By the way why do you smell like sulphur?" Dean asked sniffing.

"Oh zhat is just my mutation." Kurt then disappears in a puff of blue smoke and reappears a few feet away. "I can teleport and vhen I do I leave a smell of sulphur behind. Zhe Professor hasn't vorked out quite vhy yet."

"Huh, weird." Dean said.

"Have you had a chance to meet everyone yet?" Kurt asks him.

"No, but I'll get to that after I get settled in." Dean said before continuing on his personal tour. Kurt starts to walk with him.

"Hey if you vould like a tour I vould be more than happy to show you around." Kurt says enthusiastically.

"Sure, lead the way." Kurt showed Dean pretty much everything, they started with everyone's rooms. They didn't actually explore the rooms, more just glanced inside for a second so they don't invade anyone's privacy. Then they went on to the kitchen and dining room. Then they went in the lounge and the rest of the ground floor. After that they went in the lower levels, Kurt told Dean the password to the elevator since he was going to live here now. He showed him the infirmary, the gym; Dean was impressed with how much gear they had in there.

"And last but definitely not least zhe Danger room." Kurt said.

At the moment they were inside the Danger room, getting a better look from the inside. "Danger room huh? What does it do exactly?" Dean asked

"In here ve train. The Danger room can produce highly advanced defense mechanisms that help us understand and improve our mutations. Also it can create a simulated vorld for more advanced training." Kurt explained.

"Kind of like a fake world?" Dean asked.

"Ja, except it can't make anyzhing that can kill us, it's against the programming." Kurt replied.

"I guess that's a good failsafe." 'Now this is a step up for training' Dean thought with a grin.

After the tour was over Kurt went off somewhere while Dean went to unpack. There were so many things he wanted to bring with him that he barely brought any clothes with him, he figured he would make several trips before he had everything he wanted in his new room.

He had already put away his few clothes, now he was placing his more personal belongings. He placed his electric guitar and speaker by the corner by his bed, Dean was actually really good with the electric guitar. He had a cousin that was a crazy musician and they used to play together all the time. They were even considering forming a band but Dean went on to other things. Of course Dean never lost his touch. He would always play when he was bored so the guitar was a must have.

Next Dean placed his swords on the wall above his desk. And last but not least he took out a picture frame with a picture of Dean and his whole family and places it on his desk. On the bottom of the picture it showed 6/6/'03, this picture was taken about ten years ago in Greece. Once he does this he stands back and checks his room out, 'Perfect' he thinks.

Just then there is a knock at the door. "Come in." Who comes in is a pretty girl with brown hair and blue eyes.

"Hey there. I'm Kitty, Kitty Pryde." Kitty takes a moment to see Dean even closer up than before.

"Hey," Dean said, he could recognize when someone was checking him out. "Dean" he introduces himself. "What's up?" he asks her since he guesses she came here for a reason, or maybe she just came to stare.

"Huh?" Kitty asks a little lost in blatantly checking Dean out. "Oh right. I'm here to tell you that like dinner is ready and everything."

"Ok I'll be down in a minute." He says before turning around again to take another look at his room.

After dinner Dean was supposed to meet the Professor in his study to discuss certain matters. Dean stops in front of the Professor's study and knocks on the Door. Inside the Professor searches with his mind to see who is knocking but the Professor finds it difficult to enter this person's mind. "Come in" he says curiously.

In comes Dean curious about what the Professor wants and sits down across from him.

"Dean before we discuss anything I want to tell you something." Charles said.

Dean nods. "I usually read the person's mind that is outside my door so I can identify who it is, but when I tried to enter yours it seemed very difficult for me to do" Charles said with fascination.

"Oh, maybe it's part of my mutation." Dean said optimistically.

"Yes perhaps. But back to why I called you here. First I have successfully enrolled you in Bayville High and your first day is tomorrow at eight o'clock so get some good rest. Secondly we will require you to give a physical so we can understand the nature of your abilities. But not today, we will wait until tomorrow for that."

"Alright then. Is that all?" Dean asks as he gets up

"Yes you may leave" He said and Dean exited the study.

'Hmmm, what to do now?' I'll explore and see who's around. Dean passes by the library and spots the girl named Rogue. 'Social activity!' he thinks to himself.

The library is one of the few places Rogue can get peace. Understandably due to her powers she isn't much of a people person. Now she likes all her friends and is really appreciative that they took her in when they started out as enemies but sometimes she just needs to be on her own.

"Hey" Dean says as he approaches Rogue. Kurt had introduced him to her earlier but being only his first day he hadn't talked to her much. Although she wasn't hard to miss with the unusual white stripe in her hair. Dean's first thought about it was that it was kind of an attractive feature.

"Hi" Rogue says back. "What'cha doin here?" she asks.

"I was kinda bored so I started walking around hoping to find someone to talk to and it seems I did." Dean said as he sat down across from her.

With anybody else she would have complained or told them to leave her alone but since Dean is new here Rogue closes the book she was reading and gives him her full attention. "So what do ya wanna talk about?" She asked him.

"I don't know. How bout your ability? I'm gonna need to know if I'm going to be your teammate eventually." He said with enthusiasm.

The mention of her power makes her frown. 'Well he does have a point' she thought.

"Alright then" She takes off her glove "if ah were to touch ya right now, ah would absorb ya life force. Absorbing all ya skills and ya mutant abilities. And if ah held on long enough ah would kill ya." She said with reluctance.

Dean notices the sadness on her face and guesses there's a catch, she probably can't control it. "Wow, that's sounds great and terrible at the same time, but at least you have their powers once you absorb them though."

Rogue looks at him and says "No ah don't get to keep them; they fade away after an hour or so. But a piece of their mind stays behind"

"Hmmmmm, I don't think so. If something stays behind then it's a possibility that the power stays behind as well, only there must be a trick to it or something. Maybe you have to focus on their conscience a lot to gain a certain power" Dean said guessing.

"Maybe, but it's too dangerous. Ah keep all the different personalities locked up with mental blocks, and the only way to let one out is to let them all out. Ah won't risk it." She said.

"I understand. But if you're ever curious, you should let the Professor help you with that." He said.

"Anyways enough about me, what about you? What can you do?" she asked.

"Me? From what I've seen so far you can say I'm an improved human being." He said.

"So you're basically like Logan. Except without the metal claws." She said assuming.

'Hmmmmmmm, interesting. No wonder he's supposed to be good, if he's like me then he should be very good.' He thinks. "Yeah you could say that."

Dean decides to change the subject, "Anyways enough about powers. You have a boyfriend?" he asked with a little grin.

"No ah don't. I already told you, ah can't touch nobody. So what would be the point in having a boafriend when ah can't even kiss him?" she said a little angrily.

"Because, one day you're gonna learn to control your powers and you're going to need some experience in dating if you want your heart intact. Plus back where I'm from guys would go head over heels to even be friends with a beautiful girl like you." He said with honesty, Rogue was beautiful.

Rogue stares at him for a second. 'He called me beautiful. No one has ever called me beautiful' she thinks. 'No, it can't be'. "You're just saying that to make me feel better." She says as she gets up, turns around, and crosses her arms over her chest.

Dean shakes his head and says "Nope, sorry. If its one thing I don't do is lie to girls about their appearance" He gets up and walks up to her and puts his hand on her shoulder. "Even if it's kind of corny, don't ever let anybody say that you're not beautiful."

She turns around and looks into his deep blue eyes, she can tell he isn't kidding.

Before she can think of anything else to say he backs off and starts walking away, "Have a nice day" he says as he walks off.

'Well that was…different' she thought to herself. This is going to be somewhat of a game changer.

* * *

Dean was walking down the hallway with the bedrooms again going towards Jean's room hoping to talk to her for a little. On his way towards her room however he stops dead in his tracks as he sees a girl phase halfway through a door and say "Hi again".

Dean stares at her 'Whoa, freaky' "Um Hey what's up?" he said trying to avoid the fact that she is talking while inside a door.

Kitty phases through the door so she doesn't keep him uncomfortable, "Nothing much cutie" she says smiling. Dean wasn't wearing his jacket right now so that just left his white T-shirt which was showing a good portion of his biceps, and oh boy the biceps that he had.

That makes Dean grin a little, "You need something?" he asked.

Kitty who is still smiling shakes her head "No, I just like want to spend some time with you. Hey like show me some of your stuff." Kitty grabs Dean by the arm.

Dean allows Kitty to drag him along. "Where are you from?" he asked since she sounds like she is from California with her 'Valley Girl' accent.

"I'm from Illinois," Kitty announced proudly.

'That doesn't make any sense' he thought.

They go in his room; Dean closes the door so nobody eavesdrops on him. The first thing Kitty notices of course are the swords, "Oh cool you like have your own swords" she takes one of them off the wall and examines it. "Wow what kind are they?" she asked.

Dean takes the sword from her hands and places it back with the other one, "It's a Greek Harpe sword and they were a birthday gift from my parents." He said.

"Wow that's like so cool of them" Kitty says before looking around some more. She spots the Guitar and almost faints, 'he can play music too', "Oh my god, you have a guitar. Can you play a little for me?" she said with a smile.

Dean thinks about it, 'What the hell, I'm bored anyways', "Sure, but just a little"

Dean grabs the electric guitar and the speaker. He connects the speaker with the outlet and the guitar with the speaker. He grabs the pick that's at the end of the guitar; Kitty spots yellow lightning bolts on the guitar. Dean adjusts the volume so it's not too loud and wonders what to play.

"Do you want me to play something specific?" Dean asks

"No I don't care, just like play something nice" she says.

Dean wonders 'Hmmmmmmm…I got it'.

Dean starts off with a soft beat and eventually the sound picks up to a recognizable tone. Kitty recognizes the tone of the music, "Hey, that's Kryptonite from Three doors down right?" she asked.

Dean nodded, "Yeah, it's one of my favorite songs."

"Wow like me too" Kitty said.

With that Dean leans forward to tell her something when Kitty suddenly faints. 'That was unexpected' he thought. Dean puts away his guitar and speaker, 'Well I guess I should bring her back to her room' Dean thought as he picked her up bridal style and carries her off. On his way to Kitty's room however he runs into Jean.

"What happened to Kitty?" Jean asked.

"I guess I was a little too much for her" Dean said with a grin.

Jean puts her hands on her hips and says "Don't say that, it's mean."

"Ah c'mon, you know I'm joking. I would never do that on my first day here." He added.

Jean shakes her head as Dean places Kitty in her bed and leaves the room. "So what really happened?" she asked.

"Well, I kinda played some music for her." he replied.

Jean raises an eyebrow and asks "What do you mean you "played" some music?"

"I played a song on my guitar." He replied.

"I don't get it though, why would she faint from that?" she asked.

Dean thinks about it for a second, "I think I know why. I was leaning closer to her so I could tell her something but maybe she thought I was going to kiss her."

"That might do it." she said with a tiny bit of sarcasm.

"Thank god I didn't sing to her or I don't know what would have happened." He said speaking his thoughts.

"Wait you can sing?" Jean asked.

Dean mentally slaps himself for saying that, 'I'm never going to hear the end of this'. "Yeah I can sing, a little." He said sheepishly.

Jean grins deviously, "Show me"

"No way" he replied.

"But why not?" she complained.

"Cause it's going to take a lot more than a simple request to get me to sing." He said.

"Well that's too bad. But wow though, I mean you told me you can play the guitar good but singing too? What can't you do?" she asked.

Dean thinks about this one, "Well I can't fly." He replied with sarcasm.

Jean laughs a little and says "Things are going to be so different now that you're here."

Dean starts to walk away and says "Yes. Yes they will."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

_First Day of School_

**At the Institute**

Logan is taking his usual route to make sure everyone is up and about. He doesn't have to worry about Evan because Ororo takes care of him. Logan sometimes has to wake up Kitty or Rogue but today it was just Rogue. Kitty probably had an early night or something. As Logan comes up to Dean's room he notices the closed door and assumes he is still sleeping.

Logan opens the door expecting to find a sleeping teenager but finds something he definitely didn't expect. He finds Dean doing one handed two finger push-ups at a high pace. Dean stops for a second and says "Hey Logan" and then continues his workout.

Logan says "Never mind" and closes the door behind him. Dean had gone for his morning sprint first today because he didn't really know the area and wanted to get a better look. He ran four miles and back. And now he finished his workout. 'Since Logan came to wake me up that means everyone should be going in the shower right now' he thinks. 'I'll just hit the gym for a little'.

* * *

A little later everyone had gathered in the dining room to have breakfast. It was about 7:30 and that means they have had an hour to spare.

"Hey so like has anyone seen Dean this morning?" Kitty asks.

"I vent to go tell him zhat breakfast was ready but I believe he vhas in zhe shower." Kurt said.

"Wow, he gets up later than me man." Evan said.

"Actually no." They hear from the open door. In comes Dean wearing black jeans and a gray T-shirt and sits down next to Rogue.

"I got up before all of you but I had things to do." Dean said

"What kindah things?" Rogue asked wondering what he could be doing that early.

Dean flexes his bicep and says "Like taking care of these." Rogue admires how cut Dean's muscles are.

"Yes, Logan told me about this morning. Exactly how much do you exercise?" The Professor asked.

"Well every morning I go for a run of about four miles and back. And when I get home I do a thousand push-ups and sit ups." Dean says like it's nothing.

Kurt spits his milk out, "You vhat!"

"No wonder you're so cut." Jean says.

"And not just any kind of push-ups, he does one handed two finger push-ups." Logan said.

Kurt spits his milk out again.

"You're like a machine man!" Evan says

"Yeah like that's amazing" Kitty says staring at him.

"Oh and not just normal sit ups, I hang upside down from a bar and do sit ups." Dean once again explains as if it's easy.

Kurt spits his milk out again.

"Kurt! You're gonna like get milk on my shirt!"Kitty said.

Kurt wipes his mouth, "I'm sorry but zhis is just so cool!"

"Guys, I like to step it up so I can always be improving. So far I don't know what my limits are because my power is still growing" Dean explains.

"We will test you to see the extent of your abilities later, for now just focus on getting to school on time." The Professor said.

"Sure thing" Dean said.

**Bayville High**

Everyone was hanging out outside because they had a few minutes till class started. The X-men usually go straight in but they wanted to see the student's reactions to Dean. And speaking of Dean here he comes on his motorcycle. He catches everyone's attention when he parks his bike and takes off his helmet and swings his book bag over his shoulder revealing that he's a student. As he's walking towards the entrance he hears whispering among the students, they're probably wondering who he is since they've never seen him before.

Dean comes to a stop in front of the X-men and says "Well guys you comin?" and continues towards the entrance. The X-men start to make their way towards class.

"10 bucks says Duncan tries to mess with him" Evan tells Kurt.

Who would be stupid enough to bother Dean? "You're on" Kurt replied.

"C'mon guys, Duncan isn't like that. I don't know why you keep saying that kind of stuff." Jean pleads.

Kurt and Evan shake their heads and proceed towards class.

**Later**

Bayville High had been nice for Dean so far. Every girl that passed by him was staring at him, mainly because he's new but not the only reason. So far all he's seen is young girls that wanna go after the experienced looking guy, typical high school girls. Dean is now by his locker putting his stuff away before lunch when all of a sudden he hears "Hi there cutie"

Dean turns to look at a black haired attractive girl leaning on the next door locker smiling at him. Dean decides to give this girl a chance and see what she's all about.

"Wassup" Dean said with a grin as he closed his locker.

"You're new here right?" the girl asked.

"Yeah it's my first day." Dean replied.

"I thought so. I would have noticed you before if you weren't. So where are you from?" she asked.

"I'm from Brooklyn." He says with pride.

"Oh a Brooklyn boy huh, what brings you to Bayville?" she asked.

'I knew this was coming'. He thinks. "I was accepted into the Xavier Institute for my athletic skills." He said.

"Oh so you live with Jean right?"

"You know Jean?"

"Yeah were friends. Oh I'm Taryn by the way." She offers her hand.

He takes her hand "I'm Dean". Right as he says that Jean shows up.

"Hey Taryn! You ready to go to lunch?" Jean asked.

"Yeah let's go. I'll see you later!" she winks while being dragged by Jean.

'Girls. They can be so pushy sometimes.' He thinks sarcastically.

"Hey there" he hears behind him.

'And speaking of pushy girls' he turns around, "Hey Kitty, what's up."

"Oh I like just wanted to ask you to have lunch with me...with us I like mean with us from the institute." She asks nervously.

"Well first before I eat I wanna get a better look at the football field Bayville high has but after that sure I'll have lunch with you guys."

"Ok then." She says but before she can leave she hears "Hey there little Kitty."

Dean turns to see who said that. He sees a gigantic fat guy with a Mohawk, a slim kid with bright white hair, a scruffy looking kid that seems to be sitting down in a frog position who also smelled like hot garbage and a kid with dark hair in the front who called Kitty out.

"Ugh, go away Lance nobody wants you here." Kitty says with a little disgust.

Lance smiles at her remark. He then takes a good look at Dean. "Who's the loser in the biker outfit?"

Dean raises an eyebrow to that, 'They must be this schools bully's. They'll find out soon enough what I do to bully's' he thought to himself.

"He's the new guy at the institute." Kitty says implying that he's a mutant too.

"Oh another X-geek to add to the collection huh?" Lance said.

"You geeks bring in just about anyone these days" Pietro says as he speeds over to Dean looking him over, "I don't see anything special with you punk" he says as he pokes him repeatedly.

Dean grabs him by the shirt and says "Did I say that you could touch me punk?"

"Hey let go of him!" Fred says getting ready to fight.

Dean lets go of Pietro and says "Or you'll do what fat boy? Sit on me?" with a smirk.

Fred's face flushes red with anger and he gets ready to pound Dean when Lance stops him and says "Cool it Fred, we'll get him after school where everyone can see." They start to walk away. "Smell ya later yo" Toad said.

"Like wow, you stood up to them all by yourself" Kitty said.

"Yeah, I hate bullies."Dean says with a hint of anger.

"Anyways I'll see you in the lunch room" She says as she walks away.

"See you there" Dean Replied.

'That fight will be interesting' he thinks as he makes his way towards the football field. It was nice and big, the way he imagined it. He looks over to the bleachers and remembers all the fun times he had underneath bleachers. Kissing and making out with girls, among other things. He walks over to the bleachers and spots someone making out with a cheerleader. 'It looks like that idea is common' he thinks as he gets closer to see who it is. He spots the blonde cheerleader and the blonde guy with a Bayville High Football team jacket.

Dean decides to snap a picture of him for the fun of it, the others probably wouldn't believe him if he told them about it. He'll end up deleting it by tomorrow anyway.

The guy spots Dean watching and says "Hey get out of here this ain't no peep show!"

Dean decides to cut the guy some slack and leave him alone. Dean makes his way to the lunch room, he spots his fellow X-men sitting down together except Jean isn't with them, 'huh weird' he thinks as he gets his lunch.

Dean sits down with them and says "Hey Wassup guys" he started to eat his food.

"Kitty told us you had a little encounter with Lance, you ok?" Scott asked.

"Yeah I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" Dean asked back.

"Because they're also a group of mutants who call themselves the Brotherhood." Scott added.

"Yeah I figured they were when that white haired kid was moving really fast." Dean said.

"So are you really going to fight Fred after school?" Kitty asked.

"Wait what?" Scott asked.

"I called Fred fat so he wants to fight me after school, so I will." He said calmly.

"You what!?" Scott asked sounding irritated. "We can't fight the Brotherhood out in the open it's too dangerous."

Dean stops eating and says "Whoa whoa, what's this "we" stuff? I already told you it's just going to be me and Fred."

"Yeah but he's strong enough to lift cars and last time I checked you weren't" Scott added.

"Don't worry Scott; strength alone doesn't win the battle. Now let's talk about something else. Oh, I just caught two people making out underneath the bleachers."

"Really? Like who was it?" Kitty asked.

"I don't know. I definitely haven't seen them before. The girl was a blonde cheerleader, the guy looked like he was on the football team and he was blonde too." Dean explains.

"Well maybe you can point him out to us."Scott suggested as if that actually happened.

"Maybe I will." It is then he notices the blonde guy walk in the lunch room and sit next to Jean. "Oh wait there he is right now sitting next to Jean." Everyone looks where Jean is sitting and spots Duncan right next to her.

"Duncan? That's Jean's boyfriend" Evan said.

"I'm going to kill him." Scott says as he gets up to go show Duncan a piece of his mind.

Dean gets up quickly and stops him before he does something stupid, "Hold on a sec, let me talk to her after school. It's better if she hears it from the person who saw it."

Scott calms down a little "Alright, but I still hate his guts." He sits down.

Dean nods and says "So do I Scott, so do I"

* * *

Dean was searching for Jean. He didn't have much time before the Brotherhood showed up so he wanted to make this as quick as possible. The rest of the X-men were on the sidelines waiting for all this to go down. Dean spots Jean leaving the school, 'Ok here goes' "Hey Jean!" he calls out.

She notices his sort of sad face and walks up to him. "Hey what's going on is everything ok?"

"Jean there's something I have to tell you-"he gets interrupted by Duncan beeping his horn signaling for Jean. 'Oh this is just perfect' he thinks to himself sarcastically.

"Hold on a second!" she yells out to Duncan. "Ok now what did you want to tell me?" she asks

"Jean there's no easy way to say this so I'm just gonna say it flat out. Your boyfriend is cheating on you."

Jean's eyes widen "What? You don't even know who my boyfriend is." She said.

"Is that him in the red sports car?" He asked pointing to Duncan.

Jean is starting to get worried "Yeah that's him." She admitted.

"I caught him making out with a cheerleader underneath the bleachers." He said with sadness in his tone. He takes out his phone and shows her the picture.

Jean immediately starts tearing and leans on Dean's shoulder. Dean rubs her back to comfort her.

"Hey what's the holdup Jean?" Duncan asked approaching slowly not noticing what's going on.

Jean's head whips around and she glares at him full of hurt and anger, "You have a lot to answer for mister!" she yells as she stomps her way over to him.

Dean watches in joy as she verbally attack's him.

_"__J-Jean I don't know who has been feeding you these lies but I would never cheat on you," Duncan swears. There are still lots of students that are hanging out outside and this was the last place he wanted to have a discussion where Jean accused him of cheating on her. Ok so he had but how the hell did she find out. Duncan bets Summers is probably behind it. Feeding her lies. He knows that Summers keeps sniffing around her._

_"__Is that so?" Jean says her voice icy cold. _

_Duncan had never heard her use such a voice. It was...scary._

_Jean shows him the picture._

_Duncan's eyes widen in horror as he realizes he's doomed. _

"J_ean...Jeannie. I-I can explain that," Duncan stutters while he desperately tries to think of an excuse._

_ "__Don't bother Duncan because read my lips; WE ARE THROUGH!" Jean yells causing virtually half the school by now to stop and eavesdrop in on this drama. _

_Duncan notices Dean in the background with his arms crossed over his chest smiling at him and realizes…..'It's him' he thinks to himself. _

_"__YOU!" Duncan yells out with anger coming up in front of Dean. "You're the one who took that picture! I'M GONNA BEAT YOUR FACE IN!" He yells out in anger. At this point every student that was outside had gathered in a circle around Dean and Duncan and had started chanting 'Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! '. Even the Brotherhood was curious, they had totally forgotten about their own plans._

_Duncan throws a punch to Dean's face and all Dean does is tilt his head to dodge it with ease._ Dean uncrosses his arms and ready's himself for the next hit. Duncan throws another punch this one with more force than before, Dean side steps and trips Duncan into falling face first. Duncan hits the ground and get's back up. This time Duncan throws a hook, Dean catches it and then he uppercuts him sending him flying and lands on the hard concrete knocked out.

The crowd starts chanting 'Dean! Dean! Dean! Dean!' Dean was so caught up in the moment that he totally forgot about Jean.

Dean looks around and spots her away from the crowd weeping. He walks away from the crowd and embraces Jean in a hug, "Hey it's going to be ok, let's get you home" he says walking her over to his motorcycle.

Scott watches as Dean and Jean depart, so where does this leave him? Is he going to be stuck as a friend of Jean forever?

* * *

Watching the commotion in her office is the Principal of Bayville High. This boy interests her, if only she knew about him sooner she would have tried to recruit him. All the metal objects in the room starts to move and vibrate. A dark voice speaks "Xavier's troops are growing. We need to recruit more mutants; we don't want to fall behind."

**In the infirmary**

Dean had left Jean in her room before coming to the infirmary for his physical. Right now the Professor and Logan are with him. The Professor is doing some scans to make sure all his internal organs are intact. Logan was just watching for now, his part was to oversee the more physical parts of his test. Although he had noticed something peculiar during these tests, normal needles couldn't pierce his skin. He could only get blood out with an adamantium needle. Now why Charles had adamantium needles Logan would have to remember to ask at some point.

Once the Professor has done his initial examinations Dean is sitting on the examination table. "So how am I?" he asks.

The Professor looks over the results. "Well as far I can tell you are in perfect health and I mean perfect. There are no signs of disease of any form anywhere. Your healing might be comparable to Logan's." The Professor said.

"Can we get on with it Chuck?" Logan asks impatiently.

"Yes. Dean while we are waiting for the results of your blood sample we would like to test the extent of your abilities."

"Ok" he replies.

"You need not worry about being hurt but here we work as a team and for that to work each individual must know what the others in that team are capable of." The Professor says.

"Alright then, let's get on with it," Dean said.

Everyone had gathered in the observation room where they had a full view of the Danger Room. Logan had been sent to fetch the kid from the changing room. He knocks before walking in to find the kid looking not too happy.

"Do I have to wear this?" Dean asks as he is now dressed in the standard X-man uniform. It is black with a yellow belt with an X on the buckle and red patches on the shoulders also with Xs. To top it off were yellow boots and gloves and it was tight everywhere, it felt like spandex.

Logan almost groans. "Look you'll get to wear what you want soon enough kid. In the meantime move your ass into the Danger Room," Logan says threateningly.

Dean moves along not acknowledging the threat. He comes to a stop In the middle of the Danger Room.

Kitty is ogling Dean. The uniform is showing off his muscular physique. She has to say that she has never seen those uniforms look so good.

Logan addresses him over the microphone. "Ok kid I fitted sensors throughout the room. First let's check your speed. So when you're ready I want you to start running slowly and then work your way up to your maximum."

Dean starts off at a normal paced jog before he starts running as he slowly accelerates. Up in the control room Logan is watching the reading of Dean's speed as he passes 50 mph. 60. 70. 72. 75. It stops rising there.

"Alright kid you can stop" Logan said.

Dean comes to a stop.

"How are you feeling kid?" Logan asked.

"Fine" he said.

Logan checks the readings of the sensors they placed on Dean before they started."Incredible." Logan says.

"What is it Logan?" The Professor asked.

"The kid's heart rate and breathing never increased once. He probably could have kept that up for a while." He said.

"So what's next?" Kitty asked.

"We're going to test his strength half pint," Logan informs Kitty. He then activates a program and part of the roof drops down on hydraulic pumps. He talks into the microphone once more as he instructs Dean what they are going to do and to stand under it. Dean does so placing his hands on the underside.

Logan slowly increases the pressure to simulate a few pounds to start with. Dean stands there showing no sign of strain at all. "Ok kid I'm going to increase it slowly. When it becomes too much just shout and we'll stop," Logan tells him.

Logan increases the pressure. It passes 100 and Dean still shows no signs of effort on his part. Logan continues to increase the weight. It passes 200...400...600...800...1000.

"Man he is strong," Evan mutters in disbelief.

Logan on the other hand can see the first signs of stress on the kid's face. The reading reaches 1300 pounds and Dean is definitely starting to struggle. At 1450 he looks on the verge of collapse. Logan stops it and Dean drops to one knee.

Dean gets back to his feet. That was a little draining but he felt ok. "How did I do?"

Logan looks down at the reading at the point he stopped it at. 1500 pounds. If this is Dean at 15 only heaven knows just how strong he will be when he is fully grown. "Are you ok to continue?" Logan asks Dean.

"Yeah, I'll be ok" He replies like nothing happened.

"Ok then. Next your gonna go through an obstacle course so we can see how well you can move." Logan said with a wicked grin as he activated the simulation.

Turrets come out of the wall and start to shoot at him. 'Oh yeah what an obstacle course' he thinks as he dodges the shots. What looks like a giant scissor with a cable attached to it comes out of one of the walls and starts chasing Dean. Dean comes up to a wall and momentarily runs on it before he back flips avoiding a stab from it and jamming it to the wall. Dean lands on the cable and rips it of the scissor hand.

He keeps on running avoiding the shots from the turrets, one opens up right in front of him. 'I wonder if this is going to work' he thinks before he smashes the turret with his foot. 'Yes!' he thinks happily. He keeps on moving. A different kind of turret opens up behind him and shoots a few buzz saws at him. Dean hears the saws behind him and turns around to dodge each one of them.

He then sees three huge metal balls float in the air "What the fuck?" he says out loud. The balls grow spikes, 'oh shit' he thinks as he avoids the first and second one then he jumps on the third one and jumps away from the surrounding mayhem.

Dean takes a second to look around for anything else, nothing different yet. He continues to dodge the shots from the turrets only now he's running right for them. He slams into a turret and lands on a wall where he pushes off with his feet. Dean lands with a roll on the floor and continues to run so he can keep his momentum going.

More turrets come out, 'back to running' he thinks as he starts running around the room. He dodges more shots, a turret opens up in front of him. He jumps over it before it tries to shoot him up close.

While he was doing this another turret opened up from the floor and shot a grapple to grab Dean. It succeeded; there are only so many things he can keep up with. The grapple hoists him up to point blank range with the turret but before it can shoot Dean grabs the cable from the grapple and rips it releasing him.

Dean continues to avoid shots from the turret, it shot another grapple to get Dean except this time there were a bunch of metal walls in front of him about 3 meters high. Dean jumps and avoids the grapple letting it smash into the metal wall jamming it. Dean jumps from wall to wall avoiding more shots; the last wall disappears into the ground. 'Damn it' Dean thought, he lands on the floor with a roll and stops to take cover behind the walls. The walls suddenly disappear along with the turrets.

Dean sits down to relax thinking it's over when all of a sudden the floor he's standing on sinks in and forms a ring around the room. Then two huge metal balls drop on each side and close in on Dean. Dean looks at how deep he is. 'Shit I can't jump that high' he thinks, it must be at least 8 meters. The balls get closer, 'Hmmm I have an idea'. As the balls get really close Dean jumps towards on one and jumps off it towards the other one, he jumps off that one and onto the higher platform.

Dean looks around so he doesn't fall for the same mistake, "Well done kid, I don't think anybody did that good on their first try." Logan said.

Dean grins and says "That's because they weren't me."

"Ok kid, that's all for today. Tomorrow we'll test out your technique. For now just get changed and meet us back in the infirmary." Logan says through the microphone.

Dean changes into more normal attire and returns to the infirmary where he finds the Professor and Logan not looking so happy. "What's with the weird faces guys?"

"We have found something most unusual about your DNA." The Professor says bluntly.

Dean looks at them strangely, "Well what is it?" he asks.

"I scanned your DNA and there is an x-gene dormant there but it has not been activated yet." The Professor said.

"This means you just did all that stuff back there without any mutant powers" Logan said.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

_Playing With the Big Boys_

**Bayville High**

Dean was on his way towards his locker. He had been thinking about yesterday's events. And how this lady Mystique who is the leader of the Brotherhood is also the Principal of Bayville High. The Professor had told him about her since he might be called to her office today because he got into a fight yesterday. The Professor was not happy about that.

Dean still couldn't get that thought out of his head, "I'm normal?" Something is up because normal people can't even come close to the things he does. Whenever the subject came up about him with his parents, they always told him that they don't know. Even though they always seemed to be hiding something, 'perhaps it was a secret they thought I'm not ready for' he thinks to himself as he comes up to his locker.

"Young man" He hears. He looks to the right and he finds a stern looking principal staring at him.

"Yes Principal Darkholme?" He says with boredom in his voice.

"I would like to have a word with you about that fight yesterday. In my office, now."She leads the way to her office.

Dean sits down and waits for the lecture he's expecting. Except it doesn't come.

"Now I am correct to say you are the newest student in the Xavier Institute, am I not?" she asked.

'Where is this going?' he wonders. "Yes I am, so what?" he asked.

"So what made you go there in the first place?" she asked optimistically.

'I get it now'. "Nice try Mystique. I won't be turned so easily." He stands up looking stern.

"It seems Xavier has already warned you about me." She said.

"Yeah he mentioned you and how you can be a little sneaky sometimes." He says with a grin.

"My dear boy, I am not sneaky" she turns into her natural blue form "I just cover my tracks well."

Dean takes a good look at her natural form. 'She's hot' he thinks but not showing the same enthusiasm. "They told me you were blue but they never said you were a smurf, except for the red hair though."

Mystique frowns at the comment, "Watch your tongue boy, now back to business. I would like it if you joined the Brotherhood." She said.

Dean chuckles, "Sorry, but I'm not buying what you're selling. I'm not the kind of person who agrees to oppress people, it's not my style."

"I see it will be difficult to change your mind."

"Try impossible" he added.

"With the right incentive anything is possible"

"No no no. Now here's what's going to happen, you're going to write me a note because I'm late for class, I'm going to leave here and this discussion is over with."

'He is a stubborn one' she thinks as she writes him the note and reverts to her disguise again. "This isn't over boy. I always get what I want." She says with a grin.

Dean takes the note and walks towards the door, "Yeah that's probably why you've screwed every new recruit so they can join your Brotherhood" and before she can react to the statement he leaves "Have a nice day."

Mystique picks up a stapler and throws it at the door in anger, 'that tongue of yours is going to cost you dearly boy' she thinks. But before she does anything drastic she needs to see how he would fair against her Brotherhood. No sense in going through trouble for nothing.

* * *

Dean had finished with school and was now walking towards his motorcycle in the parking lot. He is a few feet away from it when he suddenly feels a slight tremor; Dean adjusts his footing so he keeps his balance. 'Whoa, that was weird' he thinks to himself. Then all of a sudden Pietro speeds up in front of him, then Toad lands right next to him. He then hears a big stomp behind him, he looks back to find Fred and Lance standing there. He's surrounded.

They're all wearing different outfits, "I'm guessing this is what you wear when you supposedly mean business." He said with a cocky grin.

"That's right" he said cracking his knuckles, "We wanted to see how you would fair against a mutant not a puny human like Duncan, plus Fred's got a score to settle with you. You're playing with the big boys now." Lance said with his own cocky grin.

'This would be too fun, but the Prof doesn't like the whole idea of me fighting' he thinks to himself. "Well as much as I would like to beat the crap out of you guys I have better things to do." Dean says as he goes to walk away.

"Well then we'll clear up your schedule, Fred" Lance says. Fred lifts up a car and motions to throw it on top of Dean's motorcycle.

Dean stops dead in his tracks. He looks at Lance "You have my full attention" he throws his jacket to the side, he gets into his stance and says "Let's do this".

"I got dibs on him yo." Toad says as he hops towards Dean. Toad spits sludge at Dean, Dean dodges it with ease. Toad then spits his tongue out hoping to surprise him but to no avail; Dean catches the tongue in mid-air and starts swinging him around.

"Gaaaaaaahhhhhhhh" is all you can hear from Toad, Dean then releases Toad and he goes flying into a metal pole knocking him out.

"I'm next" Pietro says as he speeds up into a blur and starts running circles around Dean. Dean does his best to try and hit Pietro but he can barely keep up with him, whenever Dean catches a glimpse of Pietro and he goes to hit him he appears behind him and returns with a punch to his back.

"Can't catch me" Pietro says as he hits him over the back of the head. Dean swings his fist wildly in response but misses.

"You're too slow" Pietro says as he hits Dean in the midsection. The punches didn't really hurt, they were just annoying.

Dean focuses as much as he can on Pietro's movements, he catches another glimpse of him but this time instead of punching where he did before Dean does a 180 and punches there. The punch catches Pietro right in the jaw sending him flying into a car. "Ooooowww" he mutters.

Dean takes a second to admire his work so far 'A little bit too easy', not noticing Fred sneaking up on him. '**_Behind you_**' Dean hears in his head. Before he can react to the random voice in his head he feels a stomp in the ground getting closer to him, Fred. Dean jumps backwards and over Fred who was trying to sneak up on him and lands a kick to the back of his head sending his body colliding with the ground.

Fred gets right back up and says "Is that all you've got?"

'Oh yeah I forgot, super strength. I guess I'll have to hit him as hard as possible to knock him out.' Dean thinks to himself. "Aaahhhhhhhh" Fred yells out as he charges towards Dean. Dean dashes and slides on the ground and underneath Fred tripping him. Fred fall's face first. "C'mon dough boy try to hustle."

Fred gets up looking angry, "Stop making fun of me!" he runs at him again. Dean crouches down and waits until Fred is right on top of him, once he is Dean Launches himself up delivering the strongest uppercut he can muster sending Fred into the air. But before Fred can get too high Dean punches him downward sending him to the floor with a Thud'.

Sadly though, Fred gets right back up with nothing but bruises on his face.

'Oh come on, a bruise? That's it?' Dean thought to himself.

"I'm gonna squash you!" Fred yelled charging once again.

'I really don't like that I'm forced to do this but I don't see any other way', he waits for the right moment and kicks Fred between his legs with all his might.

Fred immediately grabs himself and looks as if he was about to scream but no sound came out of his mouth, he falls to the ground cracking the concrete.

Dean grabs his foot, "Jesus your balls are harder than trees"

"Time to rock this place" said Lance as he started making tremors aimed at Dean.

Dean shakes off the foot pain and jumps from car to car avoiding the tremors. When Lance stops he finds Dean laughing his ass off. "What the hell is so funny?" he asks sounding annoyed.

Dean stops laughing for a moment and says "Dude, when you use your power you make a face that looks like you're climaxing." He continues to laugh out loud.

Lance's face flushes with embarrassment and anger, he now creates a stronger tremor making a big crack in the concrete and gets bigger as it approaches Dean. Dean gets serious and jumps as far as he can to avoid the avalanche and sends a fist which connects with Lance's jaw ending it.

Dean looks around to make sure everyone is down for the count, they are. It is now that Dean notices Jean running towards him; she obviously felt the tremors and checked to investigate.

"Hey are you ok? What happened?" she asks full of worry in her voice.

"I was on my way to get my bike and they just ambushed me. Thanks for helping me by the way. Fred would have clobbered me if you hadn't warned me." He said.

"What are you talking about? I didn't warn you, I just got here" she said.

'Now that's weird' he thinks to himself. "It doesn't matter, let's just get outta here before they wake up, I don't want to have to do that again." He says as they leave.

Once again Mystique is watching from afar only this time she isn't watching alone. "The boy is powerful; he would be a great asset. See what you can do to persuade him while I find others to join our cause." A dark voice speaks.

"I have already tried to turn him but-"Mystique gets interrupted.

"Then persuade him, you know what to do." The dark voice leaves.

"It shall be done" she says with a grin.

**Back At the Institute**

"You what?" The Professor asked.

"There was nothing I could do. They ambushed me so I was forced to defend myself." Dean said.

"I suppose this could not have been avoided. I must congratulate you though on defeating them on your own, that is not an easy task to accomplish." The Professor said.

"It was definitely challenging. I almost would have lost if not for…." Dean stopped at the thought of the random voice that helped him.

"If not for what?" The Professor asks.

Dean snapped out of it. "Never mind, now I wanted to give you an idea of what I wanted my uniform to look like." Dean said.

* * *

In the observation room Dean was in the standard X-man uniform again, which he really hates. A few more days and he'll have his own unique uniform. Logan wanted to review what Dean knew about fighting so like yesterday, everyone had gathered in the observation room to watch.

"Alright kid, now I want you to tell me exactly how much you know about fighting."Logan said.

"Well since I'm telling you, I might as well tell you the whole story." Dean said. He did promise Jean he would explain after all.

"As you know these abilities I have are not mutant, which means I've had them my whole life. Ever since I was a little kid the one thing that interested me the most was fighting. Fighting was a big factor in my childhood, when I was about ten years old I started studying mixed martial arts. I was a prodigy, by fourteen I could take on anyone in the UFC, so I did. I know that sounds weird but when a 14 year old beats the crap out of your top fighter, you go along with it. I fought in every weight class starting from the bottom up; I beat every fighter that was available. They announced me as Supreme UFC champion, although I always wore a mask to protect my identity. Now I don't know if any of you follow UFC but-"he gets interrupted.

"I do kid" Logan said "And I watched a lot of your fights, I'm surprised I didn't see it before."

"Well now ya know." Dean added.

"Do you know anything else besides mixed martial arts?" Logan asked.

"Well I know a little Jeet Kune Do." Dean replied.

"Hey isn't that what Bruce Lee invented?" Evan asked.

"Yes it is, I took a few lessons from Dan Inosanto but not as many as I need to make a big difference. So what now?" Dean asked.

"Well…now you fight me" Logan said with a grin.

Dean replies with his own grin. 'This is going to be awesome' he thinks to himself. They make their way downstairs into the Danger room.

"Holy shit man, this going to be sick" Evan said enthusiastically.

"My money is on Logan, he's got way more experience." Scott said.

"Ja but he can't even remember half his experience." Kurt said jokingly.

"Let's just see what happens." Jean said.

Logan is now in his usual orange and black uniform. He really needs to change the style; it's getting a little old. But it definitely beats the old yellow and blue suit he got from alpha flight.

Dean goes into his stance, "Ready when you are annoying orange."

Logan smiles at the joke, 'Time for a little attitude adjustment' "I won't use my claws so we can keep this strictly about technique. Now let's see what you got kid." He signals to come forward.

Dean dashes forward at top speed and sweeps for Logan's legs. Logan jumps over the sweep and returns with a kick to Dean's face. The kick connects Dean back flip's away to gain some breathing room.

Dean rubs the spot where he got hit, 'that felt like getting hit with a crowbar' he thinks to himself.

Dean closes the distance between him and Logan and is once again on the offensive. He's throwing punches left and right trying to breach Logan's defenses but to no avail. Dean sends a kick to the midsection; Logan catches it and holds on to it. Logan then pulls him closer and nails him right in the face. Dean slides on the ground momentarily; he stops himself and get's back up.

This time Dean tries to land fast punches rather than powerful ones. He punches away as fast as he can to keep Logan on his toes and off balance. Dean sees the opportunity and jumps on Logan, but before Logan hits the ground he spins putting Dean on the bottom.

Logan goes to pound Dean to the floor but before he can Dean grabs his wrists and pushes with his feet and reverses the situation. Dean gets a few punches in before Logan does the same but only works half-way. They are now standing up, hands locked to each other pushing to see who has more strength.

Dean starts to win the battle, but before he can take advantage Logan pulls towards himself bringing Dean on top of him and kicks Dean into the air. Dean crashes into the metal wall. Logan charges at him pressing his advantage and starts throwing more punches. Dean successfully blocks the first two but he cannot stop the onslaught that's coming. Dean is getting pummeled, but before he gets too badly damaged he kicks Logan in the gut as hard as he can sending him flying into the wall and knocking the wind out of him. This gave Dean some breathing room.

'I don't get it, I'm clearly stronger but he hits like he's as strong as me' he thinks to himself not understanding why Logan hits so hard. Dean gets into his stance again, only this time it appears more defensive. Logan also gets to his feet; he sees Dean in a defensive stance and guesses it's his turn to go on the offensive.

Logan closes the gap between them quickly and starts to attack with weird combinations. Logan seems to fight with more reflex than a specific style which means it makes it very hard for Dean to predict or even get used to his movements in the future. No wonder he's supposed to be second best.

Dean would successfully block about half the blows Logan sends, the rest connect. Dean seems to be getting worn out and the chances of him making a comeback at this point are slim to none. Even If he doesn't win he can still do anything and everything in his power to make it as hard as possible for Logan to beat him.

Logan goes to send out another punch to Dean's face except this time he does something a bit out of character; he moves forward missing the punch by mere centimeters and delivers a heavy punch to Logan's stomach. He then throws a mean hook which also connects; he then grabs his right arm and pulls as hard as he can. He hears a sudden 'CRACK' by Logan's shoulder.

"Aaaaaahhhhhh" Logan yells out in pain. Then suddenly an arm wraps around his neck preventing air from going in.

'This is my last chance' Dean thinks to himself. 'It's all or nothing, if I can hold on long enough I'll win the match.'

Logan starts to elbow Dean constantly in the ribcage as hard as he can with his good arm. Dean won't be able to hold on much longer. All of a sudden Logan hears a 'CRACK'. But still the boy wouldn't release him so he continued.

'C'mon just ignore the pain' Dean thought. Logan's vision was starting to blur, which means any minute now he would be falling asleep. He then hears another 'CRACK' but still the boy wouldn't release him.

'Just a little more' Dean thought. A there is a third 'CRACK' at which Dean releases Logan and yells out "Aaaaaahhhhh".

Logan moves away from Dean panting heavily, he then pops his joint back into place. He spots Dean on the floor clutching his side. Dean slowly stands himself up slightly shaking at the pain of three possibly broken ribs.

"C'mon kid, it's over. I have too big of an advantage now." Logan says while walking over to Dean.

Dean grins, "I can keep going if I want."

Logan can see the determination in his eyes and believes what he's saying. "I know you can kid, but you're gonna wanna heal fast if you want to do this again anytime soon."

Dean would chuckle if it didn't hurt, "Just help me walk". Logan goes on the side without the damaged ribs and swings Dean's arm over his shoulders carrying him upstairs. They enter the observation room full of dumbstruck teens. They never expected the fight to go like that.

Jean is the first to react "Oh my god are you ok?" she asked running over to him.

"Yeah I'm fine, it's just a scratch." He replied underplaying what just happened.

"Red why don't you get the Professor to meet me in the infirmary ok?" Logan asked.

"Yeah sure Logan." She replied as she ran out the door.

* * *

"I still don't get why you two had to be so aggressive." Said the Professor.

"Because unlike all the other kids he can take it." Logan said.

"I wouldn't have it any other way Professor." Dean said while Logan wrapped his midsection.

"I gotta agree with the kid on this one Chuck, we won't be making progress if we don't." Logan said.

"I'm just concerned for your health Dean." The Professor said.

"Don't worry Professor, besides I heal really fast. This'll be fully healed in less than twenty four hours." Dean said.

"Wait what? I didn't know you healed that fast." Logan said.

"I guess that solves our problem, but I am still against the aggression both of you showed today." The Professor said.

"If it makes you feel any better we'll take it easy next time, ok Chuck?" Logan asked.

"Yes I would very much like that. Now I will see you both tomorrow." The Professor says as he leaves the infirmary.

"So tell me somethin, how come I'm physically stronger than you but you hit like you're as strong as me?" Dean asks Logan.

"That's because every single bone in my body is covered in adamantium." Logan said in an unhappy tone.

Dean's eyes widen, "Whoa isn't that metal supposed to be extremely rare and unbreakable?" Dean asked.

"You got it." Logan admits.

"So how did that get on your bones then?" Dean asked.

Dean could see that he hit a sore spot judging by Logan's angry face, "I was experimented on before I lost my memory, I don't remember much of it." Logan said drifting off into his thoughts.

Dean decides not to ask more about the touchy subject, and leave that for another day.

Logan finishes wrapping Dean's midsection. "Ok kid now let's discuss how often we're going to be doing this. I think once a week sounds fair." Logan said.

Dean thinks about it for a second and replies "No. Let's do it three times a week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday deal?"

"Deal" Logan replies.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

_Codename?_

**At Bayville High**

Dean woke up this morning feeling much better than he did when he fell asleep. He hadn't fully recovered yet but was close to it. He was now by his locker about to go to lunch when suddenly something bumped into his foot. Dean looks over and finds a rather short person, at least compared to Dean, with a big red haired Mohawk and round red sunglasses moving a cart full of VCR's, DVD's, one Blue Ray player and an old fashioned square TV on top.

"Oh sorry big man I didn't see you there, my bad." Dean can tell the kid with the surfer accent is nervous, probably afraid of Dean because of his intimidating size.

Dean walks up to him and puts his hand on his shoulder, "It's all good bro, all you did was bump into my foot." Dean said.

The kid wipes his forehead as if there was sweat, "Feeewww, I thought you were one of the bully types there, I was scared for my life there ma man." He gives his hand out "The name's Stanley Brown but you can call me Stoney".

Dean takes his hand and shakes it, "You can call me Dean. And are there that many bullies in this school?" He asks.

Stoney shakes his head and says, "Fraid so bro, we little men have to look out, we don't have 180 pounds of muscle behind us."

"Well don't worry because now you have 300 pounds of muscle behind you." Dean said referring to himself.

Stoney's face lights up and says, "Duuuuuuuuuude you're sick man" They fist bump "If you ever need anything bro I'm your man."

Dean smiles at that, "I'll remember that, now what are you doing with all this stuff?" Dean is referring to the things on the cart.

"Oh I'm like a tech geek so I'm in charge of installing these babies if a class is watching a movie or somethin." Stoney says.

"Cool, anyways I'll catch ya later, I'm going to lunch." Dean said.

"Ok, see ya later bro." Stoney said.

**Later At the institute**

The Professor had been thinking about Dean, how could he do the things he does without an x-gene? It was mind boggling. The only term that he can use is a freak of nature. Imagine if his x-gene activates, if he gets another offensive power he would be unstoppable, not Juggernaut unstoppable but very hard to beat. As Charles moves through the mansion past the lounge he overhears Dean and Kurt talking. It seems that those two had connected somehow. He finds them sitting in the lounge along with a few others.

"Codename?" Dean queries.

"Ja," Kurt confirms. "Ve all have codenames vell except for Rogue but zhat is because she von't tell anyvone her real name. Mine is Nightcrawler. Scott is Cyclops. Jean is Marvel girl. Kitty is Shadowcat. Even Logan goes by Wolverine."

"What is the Prof's codename, wheels?" Dean said.

The comment makes Kurt and Kitty laugh. "No but like really, we need something to call you during missions." Kitty said.

'Like I need another name' he thought to himself. He already has two. His full first name and his nickname. "I don't know Kurt. I'm really not good with things like that." He said.

"Then ve'll help you. Von't ve Kitty?" he asks the phasing mutant.

That idea perks Kitty up. Except for the fact that Dean is here she was kind of bored to be honest. "Yeah like sure, now let us work on a codename for you." Normally codenames reflect the person's ability but Dean had so many it made it more difficult. Kitty had thought Jean was exaggerating when she said what Dean could do but after the last few days it was obvious Jean totally underplayed it.

The Professor moves on and heads for the elevator to the lower levels to find Storm who he finds is in the infirmary reviewing all the data he obtained from his tests on Dean.

"How is it going Ororo?" Charles asked.

"I measured and weighed Dean. Now from that I can tell his body is denser than a human of equivalent size but that should only equate to him being about a third stronger than a normal person by my calculations when in reality we all saw how strong he was."

The Professor nods in understanding. "What else have you ascertained so far?" he asks.

"He has perfect vision," Ororo replies. "His retinas can seemingly detect wavelengths well beyond the visible spectrum but how his eyes do that I could only ascertain by dissecting and studying them which is obviously not an Logan might have some competition in the sense of smell department."

The Professor raised an eyebrow.

"I don't think Dean even realized his sense of smell was superior until when we were talking and he mentioned the slight smell of sulphur that follows Kurt about."

"What smell?" The Professor asked. He knows when Kurt teleports there is a sulphurous smell but it dissipates quickly.

Ororo smiles "Exactly. It is so faint that few people pick it up but Logan mentioned it to me that he does."

The Professor makes a mental note to tell Logan. It might be possible to teach Dean to use that ability in the same way Logan does.

"Basically Charles, Dean is a very unique and immensely powerful individual." Ororo summarizes. "It is a good thing you found him when you did. I hate to think what Magneto would have done if he had found a way to control him."

So did the Professor.

"I plan to tell Dean all this later today. He does seem quite interested in knowing. I believe he has a great interest in knowing the extents of his abilities" Ororo had observed.

* * *

In the meantime Kurt and Kitty were still thinking about what Dean's codename would be.

"Ok, let's just brainstorm facts about me." Dean said.

"Ok vell let's see. You have Greek ancestry." Kurt said.

"You're like supernatural." Kitty said.

"There were a few supernatural Greek warriors in the past, so we have a list to choose from." Dean said.

"How about Hercules?" Kurt asked.

Dean shakes his head, "No. His main thing was strength; even though I'm strong I'm more of a warrior that utilizes everything I have."

Kitty's face lights up and it is almost possible to see the light bulb go off above her head. "That's it!" Kitty said.

"Vhat's it?" Kurt said.

"I should have like thought of it earlier," Kitty says chastising herself.

"Kitty vhat are you on about?" Kurt asks her completely lost. Even Dean was clueless at this point.

"His codename should be Achilles!" Kitty says happily.

"Ja, it totally matches." Kurt said enthusiastically.

Dean thinks about it, "I like it, Achilles it is."

**Elsewhere**

It is raining and the streets are empty. In an alleyway there seems to be some sort of light coming from the end of it. But if you look close enough it is not a light at all, it is a flame. A flame in the middle of the rain. But not just a flame, it is a flaming skeleton. The flaming skeleton is sitting by garbage holding its knees close and rocking back and forth saying, "Why won't it go away".

There is a weeping sound coming from the flaming skeleton, it would be crying but the flames evaporate the tears that would come out of its eyes. "Why won't it go away? Why won't it go away? Why won't it go away? WHY WON'T IT GO AWAY!" the flaming skeleton yells out.

All of a sudden a voice speaks, "I can make it go away".

The flaming skeleton jumps up and looks for the voice, he finds a figure in red armor floating above him. The flaming skeleton throws a fireball at the armored figure. "I JUST WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE!"

The armored figure moves to the side avoiding the fireball, "I know the pain you're feeling, you feel alone trapped in a world which seems not to understand you and your gifts. You cannot control your power and that scares you. I can make it all go away."

The flaming skeleton calms down a little, "How are you going to make this all go away?" it asked.

The armored figure gives his hand, "Come with me and I'll show you."

**Back at the Institute**

Today was going to be Dean's first real danger room session with the rest of the X-men, and today Dean was getting his own specific uniform. The X-men had gathered in the Danger Room and were now waiting for Dean to change into his new uniform.

The mood suddenly changes when Dean comes walking in. He was wearing black pants, the same material as the normal x-man uniforms except not as tight, a belt buckle with a red X on it, custom black boots, a black vest that had a red X on the back, and fingerless gloves that seemed to have round metal parts by the knuckles.

He wasn't wearing anything under the vest so it showed off his physique which looked like it was molded like a sculpture.

"So guys what do ya think?" Dean asked his teammates while he zipped his vest up about halfway so the girls don't stare too much.

"Dude you look awesome." Kurt said.

"Yeah man, that suit is tight. No pun intended." Evan said.

Scott looks him over and says, "It suits you."

"Alright now let's start the simulation." Logan said as the simulation started. It was one of the simplest programs. Run around the track and try not to be hit while overcoming various obstacles placed in your way.

"Why are we doing this program again?" Evan asks Logan.

"Because I said so Porcupine. That's why," Logan replies in his no nonsense way and seriously Spyke's attitude of late was trying Logan's patience to the limit. "Cyke you're up first," he tells Scott.

Dean watches on as the varying X-men attack the course in their own unique way utilizing their powers. He watches on wondering how easy it would be if he had a projectile to shoot like Scott or Evan but as he watches Rogue complete it in a pretty impressive time he can see that that excuse is not going to wash. If Rogue can do it he must be able to as well but of course she has been doing this sort of training for ages which is something he has never really done in his life. His turn seems to come around all too quickly, it seems to him, and Logan calls his name and he steps up to the starting line.

This is where Logan becomes particularly interested. As Dean starts his run Logan's first impression is that Dean still seems to be moving faster than he would expect. His agility is not too bad either as he dodges shots from the laser turrets. Sure he is barely getting tagged, but it's easy to see Dean will catch on quickly.

Dean is almost at the end when out of the floor a 15 foot high metal wall blocks his path. He jumps at the wall on his right as high as he can then pushes off of it to propel him upward and land at the top of the other piece. Dean leaps off the wall and lands with surprising grace before sprinting for the finish line. Logan stops the clock in his hand noting the time. "Not bad kid...for your first go."

"Not bad? He rocked!" Kurt proclaims in support of his new friend.

"Thanks Kurt," Dean says genuinely. "Once I get used to this I'll be doing it in half the time," he adds.

Once everyone has run the course Logan decides on a team building simulation. One the x-men are familiar with. That is climbing up a mountain to claim the flag. There is a shimmer that encompasses the whole room until the cold metal transforms into a grass covered field at the base of a mountain. Dean is kind of in awe. He never saw the holographic abilities of the Danger Room. How it does this is another question. It all seems so real. "Is this a hologram?" he asks no-one in particular.

"Forge calls it hard-light," Kurt tells him in relation to the person who created the technology. "He tried to explain to me how it vorked but it vent vay over my head."

"Oh it's not that complicated really," Kitty says.

"Not to you maybe," Evan says, "but we're not all straight A prodiges"

Dean turns his attention upward. Ok he knows how high the room really is but at the moment this mountain looks really, really high. 'So I better get to climbing' he thinks to himself. "Let's do this" Dean says.

* * *

A few minutes later they complete the exercise. Dean was the first one up there. They weren't supposed to use their powers; if they did Kurt would have definitely won because he can just teleport to the top of the Mountain.

"It seems I have the best physical abilities here." Dean proclaims.

"Ja definitely, but if I used my powers I would have von easily." Kurt replied with a smile.

"Don't get too confident yet kid, let's see how your teamwork skills are." Logan warns trying not to allow Dean to get ahead of himself. Dean could be a little arrogant and cocky which was surprising considering how many different ways Logan had come up with to knock him on his butt. "Now I'll be up there watching you all," he says pointing at the observation booth. "Have fun."

Dean watches Logan exit the room and then he turns to his team-mates.

"Ok then. So what's the deal with this simulation?" Dean asks

"The aim is to stay alive and make sure the team stays alive." Scott said bluntly.

As Scott says it laser turrets appear along with giant saw blades and drones fly up into the air. Dean is surprised at how many things they start out with.

Evan pats him on the shoulder and says "Welcome to hell man."

The X-men ready themselves as the first wave of drones fly at them. Cyclops shoots them down with his optic blast. Spyke shoots some spikes and gets a few. Jean moves them with her telekinesis and crashes them into each other. For flying drones Rogue and Shadowcat's powers aren't that useful. That's when wave 2 hits them from the other direction.

"Incoming!" Shadowcat shouted as she notices them.

That finally snaps Dean out of his boredom as he turns around and focuses on a drone. Problem here is though he can't shoot it down and it's way too high for him to jump up and smash it. Dean notices some giant saw blades and dodges them. As he dodges them though an idea strikes him, he grabs one of the saw blades that's in the ground and throws it like a discus at the drone slicing it in half.

'I guess I can try and use their weapons against them' he thought to himself.

The team finishes the rest of the drones and that's when the laser turrets aim at them.

"Spread out!" Cyclops yells as the laser fires. Dean starts running making it fairly easy to dodge the blasts. Everybody else spreads out a little so they're not one big target and tries to take out the turrets. One tags Spyke who isn't quite as fast. Kitty seems to be drawing their fire by phasing all the shots but no one notices it. Dean soon catches on to a tactic. He dodges at high speed and smashes the preoccupied turret and continues on doing this.

'It's a good thing I told the Prof to cushion these gloves and boots or that would have stung like a bitch' he thinks to himself.

"Help!" someone shouts. Dean looks to see Rogue on the ground as one of the giant saw blades comes for her. In just a few seconds he grabs her and moves out of the way. He offers Rogue his hand. "You ok?" he asks her.

Rogue gets up rubbing her bottom. "Oh I'm just dandy," she grumbles. Dean then spots another turret appear behind her so he runs past her and in an instant Dean crushes it with his fists.

Rogue was amazed how fast Dean was catching on, so amazed that she didn't notice something incoming.

Dean turns to Rogue and spots a giant spiked ball coming straight for her "Watch out!" Dean yells out as he sprints as fast as he can.

Dean pushes Rogue out of the way and the giant spiked ball comes at him hitting him in the face. Dean flies backward even as he leaves a dent in the ball. Well that went well...not. He gets back to his feet to see that the others are doing much better than he is, meaning they aren't getting pummeled by giant spiked balls. And that is when the floor opens up and giant metal tentacles rise up.

'Now that is just sadistic' he thinks to himself.

* * *

Up in the observation room Logan watches on. Seems they will have to fix that spiked ball. Logan may know what Dean can do now and he may be the most skilled one out of them all but how he handles himself in a team and is another thing entirely. Hence adding Dean to this little Danger Room session.

"How's it going?" The Professor asked as he rolled in.

Logan snorts. "Their teamwork is getting a little better."

Charles looks down to see some members of the X-men wrapped up in the tentacles and the rest making quick work of the tentacles. He then spots Dean Rip a tentacle off with his bare hands.

* * *

An hour after it started the X-men are breathing hard but besides that they seem to be ok except for Dean that is but even he is feeling slightly strained. Pieces of broken drones, saws, laser turrets, and tentacles lie about them.

The doors open and Logan walks in. "Well congratulations," he says in a tone that makes it hard to know whether he actually means that or not. "That is the first time you managed to complete the exercise in under a full hour. Maybe next time we can step it up a notch or two."

Dean's eyes widen at the revelation. 'It gets even better? This is going to be awesome' he thinks to himself.

"Dean," Logan gruffly snaps out to get the kid's attention. "Your aim is good and your teamwork is partially-existent so that about puts you on a par with the others."

"Well that is us done for the day," Logan informs them. "Get cleaned up and ready for dinner."

Everyone marches slowly out of the Danger Room heading towards the changing rooms.

"Hey Dean I think you did well for your first day." Scott said optimistically. As the leader of the X-men Scott knew he couldn't treat Dean differently just because he gets Jean's attention.

"Yeah, although next time I could go without getting hammered by a giant spike ball." He complained rubbing his bruise on his forehead.

Did you even break a sweat man?" Evan asks him since unlike the rest of them there is no sign of perspiration on Dean.

"I barely ever sweat," is Dean's response.

Rogue's gaze drifts to Dean. It wasn't hard to miss how well Dean built at any time in whatever he wears but in that uniform…..

Rogue shakes her head. 'God what am ah thinking?' she wonders to herself. She knows where thoughts like that can only lead to, her being heartbroken. She hasn't even noticed the little look over Dean is giving her.

Dean has to say he knows Rogue trains hard and in that uniform it really shows.

* * *

After getting changed and eating dinner the group all head back up to their rooms. It was close to bed time so they were all getting ready to sleep. Dean is now in his room deciding what he's going to wear tomorrow when suddenly he hears a knock on his door.

"Come in" he said.

In comes Rogue wearing her favorite orange and green pajamas and gloves since she's interacting with people. She closes the door and looks at Dean. She hadn't noticed what he was wearing when she came in; well actually he's barely wearing anything. All he's wearing are some black shorts, which means everything else is exposed. This in Rogue's case isn't such a bad thing.

Dean turns around from what he's doing and looks at her "You need something?" he asks as he sits down on his bed.

Rogue snaps out of her daydream and speaks "Ah just wanted to say thank you for helping meh in the Danger Room, it really means a lot to me." She confesses.

"No problem, just next time pay attention instead of looking at me." He said with a smirk.

Rogue blushes at the fact that he knew she was checking him out, "Yeah sorry about that."

"It's ok I get it a lot" he proclaims.

She sits next to him, "So how's your bruise?"

"It's still there. It'll go away in a few hours but it still stings." He pretends to wince in pain.

"Awwww you poor baby." she teases him.

Dean just looks at her with a blank expression.

Rogue laughs at his reaction.

"It's not funny" he said.

"Yeah it is, ya shoulda seen your face" She continues to laugh.

"You should stop laughing now." He says with a serious face

"Or what ya gonna stare me ta Death?" she laughs a little more.

Dean raises an eyebrow and smirks, "You wanna play huh? Ok I can play too" he moves over to her and starts tickling her sides.

"Ahahaha Dean stop please Ahahaha!" she says laughing uncontrollably.

"Say it, say you're sorry" he says with a smirk.

"Ok am sorry" she yells out.

"And who's the king? C'mon say it"

"Ahahaha y-you are" she squeals out.

Dean stops and gets up in a heroic pose. Rogue gets up and leaps for him "Mah turn"

Dean moves out of the way "Even if by some miracle you could catch me I'm not ticklish."

"We'll see about that, I'll get you when you least expect it" she walks out swaying her hips slightly.

'This will definitely be something to watch out for' he thought to himself.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

_Friend or Burden?_

**At Bayville High**

The past week and a half have probably been the most interesting in Dean's life so far. He was training with Logan 3 times a week which meant he was improving fast. But he wasn't just fighting with Logan; he was also training his senses with him. He could now smell distinct scents, not as good as Logan but close enough, and he could eavesdrop on conversations that were far away from him due to his good hearing. He would also train daily with the X-men so his team work skills were being tested. Of course he kept up with his own workout schedule and was stepping it up more often now that he saw his limits when he was tested. Social wise Dean could never go wrong; he made friends with all the X-men almost immediately. The only person he didn't seem to be friends with yet is Scott, he always acts weird around Dean.

In school Dean became pretty popular quickly. Especially with him fighting Duncan on his first day. Nobody messed with Dean after that, not even the Brotherhood bother him anymore. They're probably feeling like shit since he beat them all by himself.

Everything right now was going great, but there was still one thing that was bugging him. That voice. The voice in his head that warned him, if it hadn't warned him the fight might have been over right there. He had been thinking about it ever since. It couldn't have been Jean because first of all she didn't even know he was in trouble and second the voice sounded different than Jean's.

The voice sounded old, it couldn't have been the Prof because for him to even enter Dean's mind he would have to plough through the mental blocks he installed in his mind making it almost impossible for a telepath to enter.

Before Dean can go on about that though he notices a kid being bullied by two other guys. Dean approaches to see what this is about.

"Hey wimp, why don't you share some of that money your daddy gave you for lunch?" One of them says.

"Sorry guys, I'm not supposed to share my money with bullies" the kid said shaking.

"Oh yeah well what if I-"

"What if I pound your face in?" Dean says with a serious face as he stands next to the kid.

The two guys cower in fear, "Oh uh I'm sorry I didn't know he was your friend." One of them says.

"Well he is, now what should I do with you?" Dean wonders out loud.

"Oh please, please don't hurt me." the guy says full of fear.

Dean sniffs the air around him, 'so that's what fear smells like'. Dean moves closer to the point they are inches apart; he leans in closer and says "Boo" they run away.

Dean laughs at the sight he sees. He turns around to face the 'small' kid and says "Hey you ok kid?"

"Yeah, it's hard being a freshman" he said.

"Well cheer up, I don't think anyone will bother you now. I'm Dean by the way" Dean gives his hand.

The kid takes his hand and shakes it. "I'm Dave Morgan, and yeah I know who you are. You're the guy who beat Duncan with one punch."

"Wow I guess news spread pretty quickly in this school." Dean admits.

"Yeah everyone has been talking about you ever since you got here, you're like a celebrity." Dave said.

"Well I guess that means you personally know a celebrity," Dean said with a grin.

"Yeah I guess, anyways I gotta get to class I'll see you later." Dave says as he walks away.

"See ya" Dean said.

'He looks like he could use a good friend. Maybe I'll introduce him to Stoney; I need someone to be his best friend so he stops interrupting my conversations with girls. '

* * *

Later on Dean is sitting with Jean having lunch and out of nowhere Stoney shows up, fourth day in a row.

"Yo Wassup big man, what's crakalackin" Stoney says as he sits down by the table Dean, Jean, and Taryn are sitting by.

"Oh not much, actually I want you to meet somebody." Dean says as he leads Stoney to where Dave is sitting alone.

"Is it a hot chick bro? Cause you know almost all the chickas in the school." He said.

"No sadly it's not" He sits him down by Dave's table and Dave gets a little startled at the surprise visit.

"Stoney meet Dave, Dave meet Stoney. Now I'm going to leave you two so I can resume my conversation with Jean and Taryn, please don't come by again. Once in a while is cool but not every day Stoney." Dean says as he walks away.

Dean sits back down at his table. "I'm glad I don't have to listen to him anymore" Taryn said kind of harshly.

"Awwww c'mon I was hoping to set you two up on a date" Dean said in a joking manner.

Taryn's eyes widen, "Don't even joke about that, he's unattractive" she said.

"He's not that bad, he just talks funny" Jean says optimistically.

"Then why don't you date him?" Taryn asks Jean.

"Sorry he's not my type" she replies.

"Ladies please, Taryn chill out. We can stop talking about Stoney if you just let it go." He said calmly.

"Fine. But while we're on the dating topic, have you decided to date a girl yet?" she asks with a pretty smile.

"There are a few candidates, I'm still trying to narrow down my choices, but before I do anything I still want to get a better feel of Bayville." He said.

She puts her hand on his and says, "Well let me know when you do" she winks at him.

Jean rolls her eyes, 'Can she be any more forward?' she thinks to herself.

Dean chuckles, 'If only she knew she wasn't on that list. The look on her face would be priceless.' He thinks to himself.

**Elsewhere**

Police officers are chasing a young girl. But this is no ordinary girl, this girl is a mutant. The police officers were being taken out quickly; it seemed like the young girl would release a purple beam from her hands that just rendered anyone who it hit unconscious. Even if it scratched you you would feel at least a little dazed. The young girl continues to run down the empty street, she takes a left turn and realizes a little too late that this is a dead end. She turns around to find two police cars stopped a few feet away from her and out come four police officers pointing their guns at the young girl.

The officers take a good look at the young girl. Her hair was blonde; her eyes were glowing purple with smoke coming out of them. She was wearing black boots with purple spandex leggings and a baggy white T-shirt. And she was beautiful. She was well proportioned in all areas, so basically to quote Stoney "That is one bodacious babe bro".

"Put your hands in the air where we can see them, and don't try anything missy" One of the police officers said.

The young girl was considering going against what the police officer said but she couldn't outshoot guns, at least not yet.

All of a sudden there is a rumbling sound and the two police cars flip over and all the guns the police officers were holding are now pointed at them in mid air. Each gun smacks into the police officer that was holding it and knocks each one out cold.

Then a man in red armor floats down just a few feet away from the young girl.

"Who and what are you?" the young girl asked.

"You may call me Magneto, and I am a mutant like yourself. I'm here to offer you a proposition" Magneto said.

"Oh yeah, well what is it?" the young girl asked.

"I want you to join my Brotherhood of mutants; the world of man isn't safe for mutants yet to roam free and they do not understand our gifts." He said.

"What's in it for me?" she asked.

"You will be protected from all those who would try and kill you or capture you for study, like such" he points to the knocked out police officers.

"But once you learn to control your powers you won't need any protection, after that I ask for you to join my side in the fight for mutantkind." He said.

The young girl thinks about it for a second, "Do I get to hurt people?" she asked.

Magneto grins, "Absolutely" he said.

"Then I'm in" she responded.

"Good. Now what do I call you?" he asked.

"My name is Eileen Harsaw" she said.

**A little later at the Institute**

Todays so-called experiment with Stoney was a success. Stoney and Dave seemed to like each other, which meant Stoney wouldn't be bothering Dean so often. Not that he minded his company; he actually liked chilling with Stoney. It's just that he can't act the way he does with Stoney around girls.

Right now Dean is in the woods right next to the institute training with his swords. This seemed like the only place Dean could find peace in this huge place. Plus he had a connection to the woods; it reminded him of Greece a little. The way the trees cover everything outside of the forest gives you that feeling that there's not a single person for miles. He loved that feeling. He had nothing against being around people, like everybody else sometimes he needs his space.

Dean slices a branch off a tree and then slices it into several smaller pieces. He starts to slash at the air or at an invisible opponent take your pick. He slashes left, right, up, down, diagonal. The opponent would have been cold cuts by now.

Dean stops his slashing. He relaxes and sits down on the ground and sticks his swords into the ground in front of him so they stay there. He then gets into a lotus position, closes his eyes, and begins to meditate. He sometimes liked to do this since it was part of his Jeet Kune Do training. Before that he never meditated, even now he scarcely does it. But for some reason now felt like a good time to do it, with the whole mystery voice thing and all. Maybe if he focuses hard enough on the feeling he got when he heard the voice.

Dean tris to focus on the moment the voice spoke to him. "**_Behind you_**" it said. It helped him. Maybe this person has some answers to how and why Dean is the way he is. There was that tingly feeling in his head when he heard the voice but of course he didn't have time to focus on anything besides the fight at that moment. But now he could.

Dean tries to focus on that tingly feeling. The way it felt, the way it just popped out of nowhere. He feels something faint in the back of his head, sort of like a weak signal. All of a sudden an image flashes in his mind momentarily but leaves as fast as it came. 'Whoa what was that?' he thought to himself.

Dean thinks back to the image. There was definitely a person in the image; it also was clearly a 'he'. His eyes were glowing white-

Dean's thoughts are interrupted by a sudden shake on his shoulder. Dean opens his eyes and looks back to see who it is, he finds Kitty standing over him.

"Umm like what are you doing?" Kitty asked.

"It's called meditating, now what do you want?" Dean asked.

"Oh I just wanted to tell you that like we'll be going in the danger room in an hour." She said.

"Alright, I'll be there" he said as he closed his eyes again.

Kitty decides to play around with Dean and sits down across from him and watches him meditate. Dean opens an eye to check if she's still there and he finds her sitting across from him.

"Kitty what are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm watching you" she replies.

"Why are you watching me?"

"Because I'm curious"

Dean sighs and opens his eyes. "Well why can't you be curious some other time?"

She shrugs "I don't know".

Dean pinches the bridge of his nose, "Kitty, go bug someone else" he closes his eyes again.

"No"

"Leave me alone Kitty"

She leans closer to him, "No"

"Go away"

She leans closer to the point that their noses are almost touching, "No" she said with a grin.

"Alright fine" he goes back to his meditating.

Kitty starts to wave her hand in front of his face checking if he can see. No reaction, she starts making noises with her mouth but nothing. Kitty makes a bold move and tries to kiss him but right before their lips meet something comes between them. She looks down to find Dean's finger in between their lips.

Dean open's his eyes and says "Nice try" with a grin. He gets up, picks up his swords and walks away.

Kitty hits the ground 'Damn it! I was so close' she thought.

* * *

Today Logan had the X-men try and make a successful rescue without screwing it up. Rogue was the hostage since her powers don't contribute to stealth as much, unless you count her Goth look. She hates it whenever she's the 'Damsel in distress', it makes her feel weak and unappreciated. Not that the mission was treated like that, she just hates being saved sometimes, no matter how controversial that is.

The mission was a success, everyone played their part well and they rescued the hostage without any problems. They seemed to have the whole stealth thing down, or so they thought. Logan could just be going easy on them for all they know.

After their Danger room session they all changed into their normal attire and waited for dinner to be ready. They all had noticed something about Dean since he had arrived at the institute. He always had some kind of meat in his dish, whether it was breakfast, lunch, or dinner, with Dean it included some kind of meat and a big portion of what he was eating.

Most of the time when they would eat dinner there would be plenty left over, but ever since Dean started living with them he was just like a vacuum for food. He would eat these big portions and he wouldn't gain a pound. It was a mystery just like his physical abilities.

Dean was silently watching the Bayville news as he waited for dinner to be ready. He didn't really care about what they were talking about but all of a sudden he heard something interesting, **"—much more than just a series of small isolated incidents, it's now apparent that an organized criminal element is at work and at the moment business is good; so good in fact that there appear to be no eyewitnesses to any of these crimes. With complaints ranging from purse snatching to breaking and entering, police switchboards have been swamped with the angry voices of more and more citizens who have fallen prey to the recent surge of crime that continues to plague the city. Instead of getting better, things have actually gotten worse. Even more alarming is the baffling and often bizarre nature of these crimes. Merchandise of every size and description from skateboards to stereo systems has been disappearing from store shelves and storage areas at an alarming rate. Even the victims themselves rarely catch a glimpse of the thieves. Many don't even know they've been victimized until it's too late. In fact police have yet to come up with a single eyewitness, only a few vague reports of young boys or teenagers at the scenes have been filled. But whoever is behind these crimes, one thing is certain, these are much more than just a series of random isolated incidents. Crimes without criminals? An invisible gang at work? Who we gonna call? Unfortunately the police are the only ones available to combat what some are already dubbing "The Silent Crime Wave"**

Dean shuts off the TV, "'the silent crime wave'? Gimme a break."

* * *

After dinner all the X-men were hanging out in the living room. The subject of Dean's ancestry had come up and he had plenty to explain.

"So vat vas it called again?" Kurt asked Dean.

"The island is called Icaria. It was named after Icarus who was crash landed near the island so they named it after him." Dean said.

"Wait, what do ya mean crash landed?" Rogue asked.

"Well you see Icarus was the son of the great inventor Daedalus. They attempted to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. He ignored instructions not to fly too close to the sun, and the melting wax caused him to fall into the sea where he drowned." Dean said.

"Escape? Were they being held prisoner?" Scott asked.

"Yeah, King Minos of Crete forced Daedalus to build him a labyrinth. He made sure he wouldn't escape by placing him in a tower where the only way out was through the labyrinth or by jumping off a cliff. So he made the wings." Dean replied.

"That sounds like one pissed off dude man." Evan said.

"Yeah but why couldn't he like just go through the labyrinth or something?" Kitty asked.

"Well actually that's another story to tell." Dean replied.

"Wait wasn't that the labyrinth where the Minotaur was?" Jean asked.

"Actually yeah, you know your history Jean." Dean comments.

Jean smiles, "So what's it like there in the summer?" she asked.

"Oh it's pretty amazing. The beaches are awesome, the parties are awesome, the food there is the healthiest you can get from anywhere, and everything else about that island is just amazing." Dean described with lots of enthusiasm.

"Sounds like the place to be man. Hey maybe we could go there for a weekend in the summer or something, that would be awesome!" Evan said.

"That would be like totally cool" Kitty said.

"I have a question, vat are zhe ladies like over zhere?" Kurt asked.

Dean thinks about a way to explain this to Kurt, "Think of it like this, you know how every high school has that one girl that the whole school would want to date?" he asked. Kurt nods, "Well the island is full of those types of girls." Dean says with a smile.

"Oh yeah, now that's what I'm talking about man." Evan says as he high five's Kurt.

Rogue snorts, "As if you could get a girl like that" Rogue said.

"Hey, chicks dig da fuzzy dude" Kurt says with a grin.

"Don't underestimate the fuzziness" Dean said with his own grin as they fist pound. Just then the phone rings.

"I'll get it" Kurt says as he teleports to the phone and answers it, "Xavier Institute".

Kurt holds the phone in his hands, "Dean it's for you" he calls out to his friend.

Dean gets up off the couch, "Who is it?" he asked.

Kurt shrugs, "I don't know, some lady".

Dean picks up the phone and says "Hello?"

"Kosta it's me" the voice in the phone said.

"Mom?" he replies. With the sound of 'Mom' they all turn to see what's happening.

"Yeah I'm-"she gets cut off.

"Mom? Mom are you there?" he asked with worry in his voice.

He hears a new voice speak, "It seems like you might be joining us after all, boy"

Dean's eyes widen at the shock of who is speaking to him, "Mystique" he says out loud with clear anger in his voice.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

_Things Get Serious_

**At the Institute**

"Mystique" Dean says out loud with clear anger in his voice.

"Yes, that's a smart boy" she said mockingly.

"What have you done to her?" he asks in a menacing tone.

"I told you I always get what I want, oh and I haven't done anything besides kidnap her…..yet" she said.

"Don't you dare harm her!" he yells out. At this point Jean had already contacted the Professor to come and see the commotion and was now with the rest of the crowd listening to the conversation.

Mystique chuckles, "Oh don't you worry now my dear boy, I won't hurt her as long as you do as I say".

Dean makes a fist and squeezes tightly, "What do you want?" he said in the calmest manner he can manage, which isn't very much.

"Well now here is what you're going to do. Tomorrow at one o'clock you will come to The Brotherhood of Bayville Boarding House where you will join my Brotherhood and fight for our cause, if you don't you can say goodbye to your dear mother." She said with all seriousness.

"Understood" he says hiding his anger.

"Good, then I'll see you tomorrow." She said before she hung up.

Dean hangs up the phone and punches a hole through the wall in a fit of rage.

The Professor comes forward, "Dean what is the matter?" he asked.

Dean takes his hand out of the wall, "Mystique kidnapped my mother!" he said with hatred.

"This is most unfortunate. What does she want from you?" The Professor asked.

"She wants me to join her Brotherhood." Dean said.

"This is definitely not good. What do you want to do?" The Professor asked.

"The only thing I can do, turn myself over to them and hope they keep their word." Dean said with an angry face.

"That's not true; we can try and rescue her from the Brotherho-"Scott gets cut off.

"No Scott! I won't endanger my mother's life, plus we don't even know where she is being held. She could be in a different state." Dean said.

"If that is what you wish, it will be so. This is your family matter so you will decide what to do, we will not intrude. Just remember, you will always have allies here." The Professor said.

"I understand. I'm gonna go to my room, I have some packing to do." Dean said reluctantly before he made his way upstairs.

**At the Boarding House**

Mystique hangs up the phone and looks at Effie smiling, "It's the simple things in life".

Effie glares at her and says "I'm warning you, you are making the biggest mistake of your life."

Mystique laughs at her, "The biggest mistake of my life? This might be the best thing I ever did. With your son at my side, my Brotherhood will swat the X-men like flies! And I'm not even including the new recruits that should be arriving soon."

Effie snorts, "Just remember I warned you. You might not live to regret this stupid decision of yours."

"Don't you get it? Your son can't do anything about it, he can't even touch me. Cause if he does, you die. If he fails to cooperate, you die. If he tries to rescue you, you die. If by some miracle he somehow manages to kill me. You. Die." Mystique said.

"Who's going to kill me when you're gone? Your pathetic little lackeys?" she replied.

Mystique growls at the thought of her Brotherhood screwing it up, again. She puts tape over her mouth so she doesn't have to hear her bickering anymore, "TOAD!" she yells out.

Toad comes hoping up the stairs and into the room, "Wassup yo" he said.

"I want you to watch her while I'm gone" She said.

"But why do I gotta do it yo?" Toad complained.

"Because I said so! Now here's what you're going to do, every four hours you're going to switch shifts in watching her with someone else except me, did you get that Toad?" she said in a mocking tone.

Toad nods, "Yeah, I got it" he said.

"Good, now don't disturb me. I have some planning to do." She says as she walks out.

"Punk ass bitch" he mutters.

She turns around, "What was that!" she yelled.

"Um, I said I won't snitch" he said in fear.

"That's what I thought" she turns around walks out. Toad sticks his tongue at her.

Downstairs Fred, Lance, and Pietro are sitting in the lounge while watching TV.

"Ah man why does he have to come with us?" Fred complained about Dean coming to join them.

"Because he beat us all by himself bonehead, which makes him very valuable." Lance explained.

"Oh check out Mr. Smart over here, like we didn't know that" Pietro said mockingly.

Lance glares at Pietro, "Well Blob didn't know so I explained it, you gotta problem with that?" Lance replied with a threatening tone.

"Yeah I gotta problem with that; I'm starting to think you actually think highly of this guy." Pietro said referring to Dean.

"I don't think 'highly' of him, I'm just admitting that he's good. No matter how hard it is to believe that." Lance said with a tint of resentment towards the beating they got at the hands of Dean.

"Yes, which raises the question. How did he do it?" Pietro said.

"Yeah, I mean how did he know I was behind him when I was trying to sneak up on him?" Fred said in confusion.

"No offense Blob, but I don't think you can sneak up on anybody if you know what I mean." Pietro said with that cocky grin of his.

"Yeah. Wait I don't get it." Fred said scratching his head in confusion.

"Well now that you mention it, Fred was walking slowly towards him so he must have some good hearing." Lance said.

"That's another thing, how does he have so many abilities? I mean he can keep up with Blob's strength and he actually managed to touch me. He actually managed to touch me! Nobody without super speed can do that." Pietro complained.

"Well whatever his mutant power lets him do, I've got a score to settle with him. We all do, so when he gets here I suggest some payback. What do you guys think?" Lance asked.

"Yeah" Pietro and Fred say in unison without noticing it.

**At the institute**

Dean has been in his room ever since the phone call, thinking about what he's going to do in a few hours. This will probably be the toughest thing he has ever had to do. He was going to have to betray his newfound friends and allies in order to keep his mother alive. And today had been such a great day too, how ironic that it turned out to be the worst day ever.

Dean right now is lying back on his bed and bouncing a handball on the ceiling to pass the time. He always liked doing that when he had nothing else to do, besides playing guitar. He had already packed his things for tomorrow so there was nothing left to do, the only thing that wasn't packed were his swords which were still hung up above his mirror.

Dean looks at his swords; they bring up the thought of his father. He had called him earlier to make sure at least he was alright. He was, but barely. His father didn't know what to think when he was suddenly knocked out cold and woke up without a wife. Dean assured him everything was alright and explained to him what he was going to do. His father agreed 100% that there was no other way to settle this little problem of theirs. He trusted his son to do the right thing or the just thing depending on how you look at it.

Dean takes a second to look at his silver cross around his neck, the one his father got him many years ago. It always reminded him how much he loved both his parents, and that he would do anything for them.

All of a sudden he hears somebody knock on his door. "Who is it?" he asks out loud.

"It's Rogue" he hears from outside the door.

Dean sighs and says, "Come in."

Rogue walks in and closes the door behind her. "Ah guess this is a bad time to get back at you for tickling me huh?" she asks with a tiny smile trying to lighten up the mood.

Dean would have smiled and made a comeback if he wasn't already furious.

"So how are ya feelin?" she asked with concern in her voice.

Dean throws the hand ball at the ceiling, "I still wanna use Mystique as a punching bag if that answers your question." He catches the hand ball after it bounces off the ceiling.

"Yeah I know what ya mean. I have my own issues with Mystique." She said reluctantly.

Dean throws the ball, "Hmm, what did she do to you?" he asked giving away no emotion whatsoever.

Rogue sits down by Dean's bed, "She used meh because she saw meh as a weapon that she could have used against the Professor. She impersonated some of the x-men and tried to attack meh. I thought that they were the enemy so ah ended up joining up with Mystique, but after ah found out that she used meh ah took a piece of her mind. If you know what I mean." She said pointing to her hand.

Dean catches the ball and stops throwing it, "It seems like we have something in common. So what brings you to my room?" he asked.

"I figured that maybe since I got ma own history with Mystique ah could keep you company until you get tired." She said lying next to him.

"I'm probably gonna go to sleep soon, I have a long day tomorrow." He said.

Rogue gets up from the bed, "Well ah hope you start to feel better" she said.

Dean gets up from the bed and walks over to his window, "Sorry Rogue, the only thing that will make me feel better is if my mother is safe or Mystique's head at the end of my blade." He said with anger.

Rogue can understand why he's like this; she was the same way when Mystique used her. What she can't get is why Dean is acting so…..out of character. She thought that the minute he hung up the phone he would have been out the door. 'He probably doesn't want to take any chances, I wouldn't' she thought.

Rogue walks over to him and embraces him tightly; her head is now resting on his broad chest but making sure not to touch him in the process. He returns with his own embrace also making sure not to touch her directly.

She feels the warmth of his body, its soothing. She listens carefully and hears his heartbeat, it's slow and steady. A few weeks ago she would have been so happy if she could have done this with Scott, now she seems to not care as much anymore.

She realizes what she's doing and decides to end it before she is tempted to go further. "Ah should go now." She said backing away a little from Dean.

"I'll see ya tomorrow then" he said as he turned to face the window again.

**A little later at the Boarding House**

It was a very quiet night, one of those nights that would be perfect to watch a horror movie. Upstairs was Fred watching Mrs. Mantagas. Toad had switched with him about two hours ago and was now sleeping. Toad wakes up to a familiar feeling; he has to go to the bathroom.

He gets up and walks to the bathroom; he tries to open the door but finds it to be locked.

"Occupied, come back in ten minutes." he hears a voice from the inside.

"Ah c'mon Lance, I gotta go. Just let me in for a second." He says.

"No way Toad, go outside and take care of it." Lance says from inside.

Toad hops his way towards outside, "This some bullshit yo, we need a second bathroom in this damn house." He stops and looks around to see if anybody is around.

Nobody is in the vicinity. "Finally some peace" he takes care of business. All of a sudden something really hard hits him over the head and knocks him out cold.

Inside the house sleeping is Pietro. Probably dreaming of the day he can finally stand by his father's side, or having a nightmare about Wanda where she comes back for revenge. Nah nobody would ever release her from that mental institution, who would be stupid enough to do that?

Pietro suddenly feels a hand wrap around his mouth and nose preventing him from breathing, he tries to break free but to no avail. Before he can do anything he's out cold.

Lance finally finishes with the bathroom. He walks out looking dead tired when all of a sudden something really hard hits the back of his head knocking him out.

Fred is upstairs sitting while watching Dean's mother. He's falling in and out of slumber, he suddenly thought he heard something so he wakes up momentarily only to go right back to sleep right before someone hits him really hard at the back of the head resulting in him falling face first to the ground with a THUD!

Mystique has been pacing back and forth for hours tirelessly. She expected the boy to have showed up by now with his X-men allies to try and negotiate for his mother. This might be easier than she thought it would be. All of a sudden she hears a THUD in the next door room. She makes her way into the room where Mrs. Mantagas is being held, she spots Blob lying on the floor snoring.

'That buffoon can't even stay awake for four hours. Maybe it's time for someone else to keep watch, it's Avalanche's turn soon anyways so he might as well switch now' she thought to herself as she headed for the staircase. She hears something behind her so she turns around prepared for someone to attack but finds nothing, 'must have been the wind'. She turned around to face the staircase only to find a foot hit her hard all the way down the stairs.

There are no lights on in the house so it's pitch black. She suddenly feels something sharp pointing at her stomach and against her throat. She looks for the figure with the blades in his hands and recognizes his face, "You!" she said with fear in her voice.

**At the institute**

Logan had checked a few hours ago to make sure everyone was in bed as usual. But today he wanted to make sure nobody went rogue on them and tried to do something drastic, no pun intended. He really hadn't expected Dean to react the way he did. I mean he was mad of course but he expected something totally different. Like for Dean to just run for his swords and run off to go get his revenge. Thankfully he didn't because it would have been hard to stop him.

Logan comes to a stop outside Dean's room and opens the door to check if he's still there. He seems to be in bed, Logan goes to close the door but notices something. Dean's scent, it's kind of weak. Like he's been gone for a while. Logan goes up to Dean's bed and removes the sheets to find a couple of pillows stacked together to form a fake body lump.

Logan then notices Dean's swords are also gone. His eyes widen at the realization of what's going on. "CHUCK!" he yells out hoping to wake up everybody in the process.

**At the Boarding House**

"You!" Mystique said to the young man kneeling over her with his blade at her throat. "How did you get in here unnoticed?" she asked.

"You have terrible recruits, but that's not something you should worry about right now." he brings back his sword for momentum with his thrust, "AAAAAHHHHHH" he yells as he goes to plunge his sword through her stomach.

Mystique trembles in fear of what the boy is about to do.

'**_Stop! Don't do it._**' Dean suddenly hears in his head making him freeze in place. "Who are you!? How are you speaking to me in my head!" he yells out in frustration.

Mystique raises an eyebrow in confusion, 'Maybe Xavier or Ms. Grey stopped him'.

'**_It does not matter who I am, what matters is that you do not kill this woman._**' The voice said.

"Why shouldn't I?" Dean asked in anger.

'**_Because she is important for your future, and some of your friend's futures too._**' The voice said.

"And why should I believe you?" Dean asked.

'**_Because I know why you are the way you are. And so do your parents._**' The voice said.

"Then tell me!" Dean yells out.

'**_Not now. All your questions will be answered soon enough._**' The voice fades.

Dean squeezes the handle to his sword as he returns to the current situation. He puts the tip of his blade at her throat and looks at Mystique and says, "Now listen carefully. If you ever do anything to my family again, I will find you. I will hunt you down, and I will show you the true meaning of pain." He said with the outmost hatred in his eyes that made Mystique shiver. He punches through the wall right next to her face; "GOT IT!" he yells inches from her face. She nods in fear.

He stands up straight. "Good" he says with a much calmer voice before kicking her face knocking her out cold. "Then go to sleep bitch." He says before walking up to the room where his mother is still sitting.

He removes the tape that was on her mouth and cuts the rope with one of his blades. She embraces him in a tight hug. He drops his swords embracing her back in return. "Mom?" he asked.

She looks up at him, "What is it?" she asked.

"I know that you know about how, you know, I'm special." He said bluntly.

"But how-"

"It doesn't matter, all that matters is that you finally tell me so I know what I am." He said.

"Can this wait till we get home?" She asked.

Dean smiles, "Sure Mom"

**At the institute**

"I can't believe I let him go out all on his own." Logan said putting one of his boots on while hopping towards the front door.

The Professor is rolling right behind him, "You couldn't have foreseen this, none of us could. What matters now is making sure Dean is safe and sound." He said stopping by the front door where everyone else is ready to go.

"Alright Professor, are we ready to go?" Scott asked.

"I believe we-"the door bell rings. Everyone looks to the door wondering who it could be at this hour.

"Logan would you please." He asked.

Logan opens the front door only to find the last people they were expecting. Dean and his mother, "What's up guys" he says with a smile.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

_Revelation_

**At the Institute**

Yesterday Dean had arrived late at night with his mother. Everyone was shocked at how Dean had retrieved her all by himself. Everyone was thrown off at the way Dean acted after he found out what happened, when in reality he was just picking his moment. Of course Dean hadn't told anyone that he almost murdered Mystique but was stopped by a mysterious voice in his head.

After Dean returned last night he took a trip with the Professor and Logan to drop off his mother at home where she belongs. Of course they stayed a little longer due to the conversation Dean had with his parents concerning his abilities. Oh and what a conversation it was.

**Flashback**

Dean sits down by the couch waiting for his questions to be answered. His parents sit down across from him with worry all over their faces. "So, tell me everything." Dean says bluntly.

His mother sighs and prepares herself for what he's about to say, "Son, you could do these amazing things all your life. You were always the best at everything you did. But you always had a thing for fighting; it was in your blood. It is in your blood. The reason why you are the way you are, is because you are the descendant of the great Achilles himself." His mother says with pride in her voice. What his mother says makes his eyes widen and leaves him speechless.

"You have the power of the greatest warrior who ever lived running through your veins. The reason why you were so fond of fighting is because it's part of who you are. I know this is a big shock to you, and I know that a lot of things make sense now. Like why you're stronger, faster, smarter, more agile, more flexible, and even why most things can't pierce your skin." His mother went on.

"But how? Wouldn't a bunch of super-powered beings attract attention?" he finally says.

"The gene itself is passed down from parent to child yes, but it only activates every hundred years or so. You just happened to be the lucky one." she said.

"But still, some of these abilities don't make sense. I never heard of Achilles having a better sense of smell-"

"There is no way to know for sure, the only ones who ever knew his true abilities were the gods. But one thing is for certain, no ordinary man can beat you. The reason why you never heard of Achilles using some of these things may be that they were never mentioned or perhaps he never noticed them enough to utilize them. He lived in a simpler time when all you needed was strength and speed. But now the world has evolved and so have you, the way people fight today is more complex than it has ever been. You have way more potential than he ever did." His mother said with pride.

That last part could be questionable but Dean doesn't pay much attention to it, "I understand, I guess." Dean said.

"I know this is a lot to take in but you have to have faith in your own ability. You're going to face challenges ahead of you; I know this, every other member of the family who inherited the gift of Achilles did. Just remember something when you're out there, you can't always have an easy win, sometimes you have to sacrifice something in order to win the battle. And you can't let emotion blind your judgment, no matter how cold it sounds. For the greater good you might have to sacrifice something to win in the end. Don't be afraid to do that, remember, no sacrifice no victory." His father said.

"Thanks Dad" Dean said getting up ready to leave.

His father stops him, "Oh wait, before you go. I need to show you something, come with me" His father led him to the basement.

His father opens a hatch to an underground safe that was covered by lots of stuff, "Can you pick up that chest for me? I don't wanna hurt my back."

Dean smiled, "Sure Dad" he lifted the big chest out of the safe with ease.

His father unlocked the chest and opened it, revealing a set of armor. It shined brightly in the chest with gold and silver.

Dean gave it a good look over before realizing something "Is that…."

His father nodded, "It is" He pulled out the helmet, "This is Achilles' armor, the one that was created by Hephaestus himself."

"How strong is it?" Dean asked.

"As far as I know, it's indestructible." He said.

"So….this is mine to have?" Dean asked.

"Well, yes and no. I'm showing you this so you know that it's here waiting for you. Whether you take it now depends on whether you're ready for it or not, are you?" he asked

Dean thinks about it, it would be a great asset to have this kind of armor on his side. But he fears that he would slowly grow to rely on it, and he's looking to improve his skills before anything else. "No, right now I'm not. One day I will be, and when I am it'll be here waiting for me."

"I'm proud of you son, now go embrace your heritage." His father said with a smile.

**End Flashback**

For the whole trip back he was silent. It all makes sense even though he had no idea. He always knew that he was special, but the descendant of a great warrior? Now that is a great honor. But now one last thing remains, the voice. Who is it? It would take hours of probing his mind for it to be penetrable, and that would be noticeable.

He decides to get some fresh air outside. It is now night time and the full moon is shining brightly. He slowly makes his way outside carefully not alerting the others so no one bothers him. He enters the woods and stops after leaving a good distance between him and the institute. Now would be a good time as any to try and speak to the voice.

"Reveal yourself!" he yells out trying to get the attention of the voice.

'**_It seems you have found your answer young one._**' the voice said.

"About my heritage yes, but I still don't know who you are and what you want." Dean said.

'**_My motives will be revealed in time. As to who I am, you should have an idea now._**' It said as if it should be obvious who he is.

"I don't know. You could be anybody. For all I know you're God." He said.

The voice chuckles, '**_Close, but oh so far. Try the King of Olympus._**' It said.

Dean slaps himself for not knowing sooner, "Well if it isn't captain thunderbolt himself. Zeus." He said sarcastically. When he said his name though he heard thunder ruble in the distance.

'**_Correct_**' he said cheerfully.

"I should have known. So why are you speaking to me? My father didn't mention anything about weird voices in my head." he asks getting back to the point.

'**_Because none of your ancestors have ever experienced that._**'

"So why me?"

"**_You are different than the others. You are the most similar to Achilles and yet the most different._**"

"How's that?"

"**_All of those before you with the gift of Achilles weren't as powerful as the original, all of them had significant differences. But you? You are very similar to Achilles because your abilities are almost at the same level as his._**"

"But then how am I different?"

"**_You are different because you have new skills that your Ancestor never had. And you do not have his weakness either._**"

"How is that possible?"

"**_Hmmmm, what is it you mortals call it, evolution? Yes that's what it is._**"

Dean thinks about it and it makes sense, due to evolution the Achilles gene was passed down from father to son and over the course of thousands of years the gene has been perfected, so to speak. "But that still leaves out why, why are you doing this?"

"**_With all these mutants spreading around the world, there will be a war in the future to decide who will rise and who will fall. Humans or mutants, the war will be so destructive that there will be nothing left but barren wasteland, an empty shell of what the earth used to be like. I have foreseen this and it must be stopped at all costs, and in order to stop it I need a worthy champion capable of carrying out this task. Gods cannot interfere with human affairs, at least not directly. I wish for you to be my champion. Do you accept my offer?_**"

This is something Dean really had to consider, becoming a champion of the gods, probably lots of responsibility, saving the earth from ultimate destruction, the world on top of his shoulders as if he were Atlas the Titan holding it up. That might be dangerous, but it might be fun too, aside from the point that the world was at stake.

"If I accept your offer, what happens to me?" Dean asked.

"**_If you accept then when the time is right I will test you by undergoing trials of my choosing in order for you to prove to me that you are worthy of this task. After you complete your trials I will personally train you to complete the process, then and only then will you be ready to take on your biggest challenge._**"

"If I do this, do I gain anything else besides training with you?"

Zeus chuckles, "**_In time you will be rewarded, yes._**"

"How can I trust you though?" Dean asked.

"**_You cannot, this is a leap of faith. I will warn you beforehand that if you do accept my offer there will be great power but there will also be great pain, are you willing to risk it?_**"

Dean sighs, there's always a price. Promises like this always have a price to pay, but what will Dean have to sacrifice to do this? Dean's father's words echo in his head, "No sacrifice, no victory". He knew what he had to do.

"I accept your offer." Dean said with a straight face. "Now when do these trials begin?"

'**_They will begin when you learn to utilize all your abilities to their fullest and reach your full potential as a mortal. Until then I will guide you when necessary. For now I leave you with these my champion…_**' he said as random thunder struck the ground in front of him temporarily blinding him.

Dean waits till the scorched ground clears up so he can see what the hell just happened. The smoke clears and Dean Spots what seems to be metal gauntlets? He takes a closer look and picks them up. They shine in the moonlight in a silvery way and he also spots yellow thunderbolts on each side of them.

"I'm guessing that you won't tell me how to use them so I can keep myself busy?" he says out loud but with no answer. "That's what I thought." He makes his way into the institute and he finds Storm looking out the window.

"Hey Storm, What'cha lookin at?" he asks hoping she didn't notice the random thunder.

"I felt some thunder, but today there's a clear sky. It doesn't make sense." She said.

Dean shrugs as he passes by her, "The world is a weird place."

**At The Boarding house**

The brotherhood woke up this morning to a very pissed off Mystique. Apparently Dean had snuck in the house last night and rescued his mother. And for some reason she was really vague as to how he managed to beat Mystique. They figured that she got her ass handed to her.

The brotherhood didn't go to school today because Mystique had them doing exercises. Probably because they screwed up and Dean took them out like they were flies. They are all now relaxing in the lounge area trying to recover from their workout. Exercising wasn't part of their daily routine so they were always sore whenever they did do it.

"Mystique is gonna kill us one of these days yo, I can't feel ma legs." Toad complained.

"You're talkin, I have super strength and I can barely feel my arms." Fred said rubbing his biceps.

"Let's just hope we don't run into 'him' for a while." Pietro said, 'him' being Dean.

"You know what; maybe all this exercise is good for us. So next time we'll be more prepared against him and the X-geeks. Plus we're supposed to be getting help one of these days right?" Lance said standing up.

"I'm not sure exactly" said Mystique entering the room. "I haven't heard from your father Pietro, have you?" she asked.

"Hey don't look at me, he doesn't tell me anything." He said.

"Exactly" they all hear a voice from the doorway. They all look to find Magneto standing there with his arms crossed over his chest.

They all stand up, "Father" Pietro said.

"You failed me." Magneto said to Mystique.

"It's not my fault, he's more formidable that I expected-"

"You underestimated him and that was your undoing. You will not try this again for I fear he will not be as merciful. Now I want you all to meet your new teammates." He points to the door where two people come in, a boy and a girl. The girl is blonde with blue eyes and is wearing purple spandex leggings with black boots, a black shirt, and a black jacket over it. The boy has black hair and what seems like red eyes. He is wearing black jeans with a red shirt. "Fever pitch, Phantazia, welcome to the Brotherhood."

**At the Institute**

Dean had decided to gather everyone in the lounge area to reveal what he had learned today. Except for the part where Zeus can speak to him telepathically, which he figured he would save for another day because that was beyond creepy. They had all gathered around Dean and he explained how he came to be so powerful. From the beginning with the first Achilles, all the way to Dean thoroughly explaining his diverse abilities.

Scott stands up, "Ok hold on, everything you just said just gave me more questions that I want to ask. Like how come nobody noticed super-powered beings walking around for thousands of years? Or does this mean that the ancient Greek gods existed?"

"All of it is true and can be explained. The reason nobody noticed my super genes before is because it only activates every hundred years or so." Dean said.

"Hey isn't it kinda funny how like his codename is Achilles and that's how he got his powers?" Kitty said.

"Yeah, actually that is kind of funny" Dean replied with a smile.

"But what about the so-called 'gods'?" Scott asked again.

"Surprisingly I can explain that too" he pulls out the gauntlets he found. "When I was outside thunder hit the ground not too far away from me and I found these there." He said showing the gauntlets.

Everyone got up and marveled at the beautiful craftsman ship of the metal. "Vhoah, that is cool!" Kurt said.

"Yeah man, check out the thunderbolts on the sides, wicked." Evan said.

"So that explains the thunder I felt earlier, I knew it was strange for a clear skied day." Storm said.

"But does it really mean that Greek gods exist?" Jean asked.

"Well normally I would think that armor doesn't fall from the sky traveling in thunder during a clear skied day." Dean said sarcastically.

"Good point" Jean replied.

"How bout we give these babies a test run, just to see how much they can take." Logan said with a grin.

Dean returns with his own grin, "I actually like that idea, let's go for it" he said.

All the X-men gathered in the danger room suited up and ready to test out Dean's new gauntlets. Dean was wearing the gauntlets and he had to admit that they were a nice fit. They looked like they were going to be uncomfortable but surprisingly they weren't.

"Ok first up is Spyke, let's see what you got." Logan said signaling Spyke to shoot some bone spikes.

"Alright then" Evan said as spikes sprouted on his arm before shooting right out of his arm. Dean blocked each spike with his gauntlet and every spike that hit his gauntlets shattered on impact.

"That settles for basic projectiles, Storm throw some lightning at him." Logan said. Storm does as he says and projects some lightning at Dean, Dean blocks it with his gauntlets and they seem to absorb it or something because that didn't even leave any scorch marks.

"Pretty good, Cyclops you're up" Logan signaled Scott to shoot his optic beam. "Let's start out with a small one and see how that goes".

"Got it" Scott shot a small optic blast at Dean. It hit one of his gauntlets and bounced off into a different direction. 'Hmm, that could be useful' Dean Thought.

"Ok now let's try an ongoing blast." Logan said. Scott fired his optic beam; Dean formed an X with his hands to block the beam. The beam hit the gauntlets head on and it stopped traveling there. The force of Scott's optic beam pushed Dean back a few feet but stopped there before he started pushing forward.

"That's enough Cyclops" Logan said. Scott stopped. Dean's gauntlets were smoking a little but it cleared in seconds to reveal that the optic beam didn't even scratch them.

"Vhoah! Now that is some seriously tough material" Kurt said.

'Tough material?' Dean thought to himself. Dean looks at his gauntlets and then he looks at Logan. "Hey Wolverine, why don't you take a slash at it" he said raising his guard.

"I don't know kid, if it doesn't work you're gonna lose a hand." He said.

"Trust me on this one" Dean said with confidence.

"Your funeral kid" he said as he unsheathed one claw so he doesn't accidentally cut him with the other two. He slashes at it, it makes a loud ding when it collides and to everyone's surprise the slash was blocked. "This is definitely the real deal" Logan said in surprise.

"I guess that settles that" Scott said.

Logan suddenly gets an interesting thought. "Alright, Achilles you stay here. The rest of you can go." Logan said. Everyone else leaves to go change leaving Logan and Dean in the Danger room. "Now then, I seem to have come up with another way to hone some of your skills." Logan said with a grin on his face.

"So what is it?" Dean asked curiously.

"We're gonna work on your sword fighting skills." Logan said happily.

"And how do you suppose to do that?"

"Well, I use my claws and you can use adamantium swords produced by the Danger room."

"Ah so the blades don't break against your claws I get it."

"Exactly, this will just take a sec." Logan said going up to the observation room and programming a simulation they can use. About 5 minutes later he comes back.

"Activate simulation swordplay" Logan said out loud as the room changes to an open grassy field with two swords stuck in the ground in front of Dean.

Dean lifts them out of the ground; they feel about the same weight as his swords so this shouldn't be any different. Logan pops a claw on each hand. "We'll start with one on each hand and move our way up as you get better." Logan said.

"Alright" he flips the swords "Let's do this". Logan charges first slashing at Dean testing the boy's defenses. The boy is keeping up and returning with some of his own attacks. Logan is able to block them with ease; he can tell the boy is still warming up. Dean decides to step up his game and attack with everything he's got. Dean manages to slice at Logan's chest and opens up a gash. Logan ignores it for he knows it won't stay there for long.

Logan knows that the boy heals fast so it's ok if he gets a little hurt. Even though his healing factor isn't on par with Logan's yet. Logan cuts Dean right by his bicep and he continues his attack. Dean forgot about his newly acquired armor pieces and decides to utilize them. Logan went to cut Dean again but Dean blocked with his gauntlet.

Logan notices this and decides to take a different approach. This time Logan attacks lower than he did before, taking Dean by surprise. Logan slashes at his right leg and manages to make a flesh wound. 'I have to watch out for those low blows, they're harder to avoid' Dean Thought to himself.

Their blades continue to clash repeatedly with great speed. Logan decides to end it and attacks with his full fury slashing with speed that Dean can barely keep up with. After a few minutes of the onslaught Logan manages to discard Dean's swords leaving him weaponless and defeated.

He retracts his claws, "End simulation" the room changed to the normal metal room, "Not bad kid, I'm surprised you could even keep up with me for that long." Logan said.

"Well I didn't know that you could move that fast with your claws. We should add this to our weekly schedule so I can improve on this too." Dean added.

"Good idea. That way you can get some more experience with weapons." Logan said.

"I mean I can use other weapons besides swords you know. I just prefer them." Dean said.

"I'll be the judge of that one. Now let's stitch up those wounds of yours, we wouldn't want anybody getting the wrong idea at school." Logan said leading Dean to the infirmary.

"I really wouldn't even bother; they'll be healed by morning." Dean said.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

_Dark Beauty_

**At Bayville high**

It was Friday. The day before the weekend, the one day most students are most tempted to cut class. The X-men had arrived at school a little earlier than usual so they decided to hang out outside until class started. The idea of Dean being a descendant of the great Achilles was still fresh in their minds, I mean, how lucky is he?

Even though they all possessed some extraordinary power that made them unique, they never expected something or someone like this to be living with them. And to think that Dean has an X-gene that still hasn't been activated yet, who knows what kind of power he could get.

"I mean isn't it kind of interesting?" Kitty said.

"Yeah, on top of everything ya can already do your x-gene might give you something extra." Rogue said.

"Guys can you stop talking about that, who knows if my x-gene will even activate?" Dean said.

"Yeah you're right; you might not even get another ability. If anything your children will definitely have an active x-gene." Jean said.

"Well if he does get another ability, I get to keep his gauntlets." Evan said with a smile.

"Yeah keep dreaming porcupine, nobody wears these but me." Dean points to the gauntlets underneath his jacket.

Scott notices them, "Wait why are you wearing them to school!? Someone could see them."

"And what are people gonna say if they do see them? 'Oh hey why are you wearing armor made by the gods?' How would anybody know what these things really are? Let me tell you, they won't. If somebody asks me about them I'll just say they're family jewelry, and as to why I'm wearing them. Let's just say I would rather be prepared for anything. You never know what could happen." Dean said.

"Then where are your swords tough guy?" Kitty said with a grin.

Dean leans closer to Kitty, "Who says I even need them? Plus I only use them when I'm serious. Anyways I'm gonna go inside. I need to leave something in my locker before class." Dean says as he leaves the group.

"So, I hope you guys didn't make any plans for spring break because it's going to be filled with lots of danger room sessions." Scott said happily.

"C'mon man, can you stop focusing on zhe terrible part of zhe vacation?" Kurt pleaded.

"Yeah Scott, what is it with you and like doing all that extra work?" Kitty said.

"I don't know why you guys have a problem; it'll be good for the team to get some extra practice in. We can't be wasting our time doing nothing at the beach." Scott said

"Well I don't know what your plans are man, but I'm definitely going to the beach to waste my time." Evan said.

"I think maybe I'll go too, I'm starting to look like a vampire or somethin." Rogue is referring to her pale white skin. "I hate having to cover up all the time."

"We can't be wasting our time with that kind of stuff; you never know when the Brotherhood can go off causing trouble." Scott said.

"You got that one right summers." A voice in the background said. They all look to find Lance and the Brotherhood approaching them, but with two new people they have never seen before. "We're more trouble than you can handle." He said with a grin.

"Keep dreaming Alvers, we can handle you any day." Scott said glaring at him even though nobody can tell behind his glasses.

"Maybe before when you had us out numbered, but know we've evened the odds." Lance said referring to the two new members of his team.

"Yeah yo, they can-"Lance slaps the back of Toad's head to shut him up before he reveals anything to the X-men. "Let's not tell them everything just yet. For know just remember to watch your back, see ya later geeks." He says as he purposely pushed through Scott to piss him off some more. The rest follow Lance's lead into the school.

"You think maybe we should tell the Professor about this?" Scott asked Jean.

"About what exactly?" she replied.

"That the brotherhood has some new members and we don't know anything about them."

"We should definitely mention it to him; he'll be interested in finding out more about them." She added.

It usually would only take Dean a few seconds to get what he needed from his locker but today his mind was elsewhere. Elsewhere being the king of the gods. That whole idea just raised a million questions. Like if Zeus exists then don't other gods exist as well? Or if these gods exist are there demigods around the world? Or what about the whole monster concept? Are there still any lurking around waiting to wreak havoc? All these new possibilities just made his head hurt, not literally.

Dean's train of thought is interrupted by a soft voice, "Hey there stud".

'Stud?' he thought to himself.

He looked to his side only to find the last thing he was expecting to find in a place like Bayville. He was looking at a beautiful young blonde haired girl with blue eyes wearing a leather jacket with a purple tank top underneath showing off her voluptuous breasts. The lower part of her body had skin tight black spandex and black boots, and to top it all off she had a look that just screamed 'I'm hungry for boys'.

To basically sum it all up, that was one sexy girl. The reason why he wouldn't expect something like this is because Bayville high is like a small town high school, even though it's not.

Dean closes his locker and put his 'game face' on. "Hey, I haven't seen you around at all."

"Well that's because I'm new." She says full of lust in her eyes.

'Whoa, coming on way too strong' he thought to himself as he read her body language. She was leaning on the locker next to his perking her chest out trying to look sexy among other things.

"Yeah I definitely would have noticed someone like you before." He said with a grin, he was just being his old friendly self.

She leans in closer to him; she runs her finger down his shirt feeling what's inside. "You'll definitely be seeing me around, see ya later" she said swaying her hips while walking away.

Dean watched the mysterious girl walk away and thought, 'That was definitely interesting'.

As he thought about her two figures approached Dean from behind him. "Duuuuuuude who was that bro?" he hears from behind him.

Dean turns around to find some of his less popular friends, Dave and Stoney. "I haven't seen her before in the school." Dave said starring at her behind.

"That's because she's new here" Dean added before looking back to the direction where the girl was walking.

"Did she tell you her name?" Dave asked.

"I didn't get a chance to ask." Dean replied.

"Hey bro you should totally set me up, I could really use a babe like that." Stoney said jokingly.

"For some reason I don't think you're her type." Dean said with a grin.

"Hey maybe I can give it a try." Dave said optimistically, but it was obvious he wasn't joking.

Both Dean and Stoney just blankly stare at him. Stoney puts his arm around Dave's shoulder and says, "C'mon Dave I thought we went over this already, we're the losers of the school. We don't get girls like that."

Dave pouts, "I know, but I don't wanna be. I mean Dean could just hook us up with some hot girls right Dean? "He asked.

"Whoa Dave, I'll help you out if somebody messes with you but I don't want you to rely on me for everything. Plus I can't make a girl go out with someone they don't want to, no offense." He replied.

"It's ok." Dave said reluctantly. "She's out of my league anyways; I'll start with something smaller."

Dean pats him on the back, "Good you should always start out with something easy, now I gotta go to class guys. See ya later." He said before walking away.

Today Dean decided to sit with Jean and Taryn again. They always had interesting conversations, at least when Taryn wasn't drooling over Dean. Not literally of course, but you get the point. He would switch between their table and the usual X-men table where the rest of the gang sat every day.

Stoney had also limited his visits to about once a week which was fine for Dean of course but it still bugged the hell out of Taryn. Hopefully whatever she has against Stoney he can learn to fix by being around Dave. But that's the least of Dean's problems right now.

"So you're telling me that they just got _more_ people in their group?" Dean asked.

Jean takes a second to check if Taryn is still getting lunch, "That's exactly what I'm saying."

Dean cracks his knuckles and grins, "The more the merrier."

"Dean I don't think you're getting the importance of this situation. You might have beaten them before when they attacked you one at a time but now they'll be more careful and now they have two more people to add on to that." Jean pleads.

Dean sighs, "Jean I think you're giving them too much credit. We don't even know what they can do yet. They could have ridiculous abilities for all we know."

"Or they can have really destructive powers that can be a major threat." Jean replied with a serious tone.

Dean leaned back on his chair and puts his feet on the table, "Sheesh, they add two more guys to their team and you panic like it's the end of the world."

Jean raises an eyebrow at Dean's assumption that the recruits are both male, "Well actually one of them was a girl."

Dean loses his balance on his chair and falls backwards. He gets right back up and sits on his chair. He looks around to check if anybody noticed him fall, nobody, good. "Um, that could be a problem for me." He said with a low voice.

Jean is interested in Dean's new attitude, "and why is that?" she asks with curiosity.

He leans closer to her, "I can't hit a girl." He said with an honest face.

Jean giggles at his reply thinking he's joking, "What? Why not?"

Dean's face gets a little more serious, "Because, I don't hit girls."

Jean realizes that he's serious, "Oh, well don't worry about it. Someone else can go for her if we ever encounter them." Dean relaxes with that statement and runs his hand through his hair.

Jean decides to have a little fun with Dean and exploit his 'weakness'. "So no matter what a girl does to you you wouldn't hit them?" she said with a grin.

Dean sighs, he hates this conversation topic. "Look, the only way I would even consider hurting a girl is if it's life threatening. If not then no." He said with a serious face. He spots Taryn on her way over to the table and changes his facial expression to a happier one.

"Hey guys, so what did I miss?" Taryn asked as she sat down.

"Nothing" Dean says quickly before Jean can say anything. "Just small talk"

Jean sends Dean a glance that means 'we will continue this conversation later'. "Yeah just something to pass the time with. So what's up with you?" Jean asked.

"Well I did notice a new guy here today. But he's with that dropout group over there by the corner." She said pointing to where the Brotherhood is standing. Dean looks over there and spots the guy Taryn is talking about. He has medium length messy black hair, black jeans with black shoes. A dark red shirt and a black hoodie over his head covering some of his face.

The guy notices Dean looking over there and their eyes meet. The first thing that Dean notices about him is that his eyes looked like a shade of red, and since Dean is supposed to have good vision he's not gonna doubt himself. His eyes flare momentarily, only those with great sight capable to see. And just as that happens somebody comes over to his table and leans on the table, "What'cha lookin at stud?" someone asked.

Dean turns around already knowing who's going to be there but he was still surprised at her poise. The really hot girl he talked to before was bending at an exact 90 degree angle and was leaning on the table facing him. Her bending over really highlighted her ass from the back and showed off her cleavage in the front, 'Definitely looking for attention' Dean thought to himself.

Jean and Taryn look skeptical about this girl's sudden appearance. "Nothing really, just noticed another new guy." Dean says looking over to the guy with the black hoodie trying to get the attention away from him.

She looks over to where her teammates are sitting and grins, "Tell you what" she runs her finger down his chest, "Why don't you ditch the goodie good girls here, and come hang out with me and my friends" she stops her finger right above his crotch. "Oh and by the way, my name is Eileen" she kisses him on the cheek leaving smeared purple lipstick and leaves swaying her hips as she walks away.

Taryn instantly makes a sour face and folds her arms over her chest, "So who's your friend?" Taryn asks with a jealous tone.

"I just met her today, she's new here."Dean says trying not to sound too attached.

Jean puts aside her jealousy to focus on the matter at hand. "Yeah, she and that other guy over there are the two new kids I was telling you about remember Dean?" she winks at him.

Dean realizes what she's saying and looks back at Eileen and spots her with the rest of the Brotherhood. 'Fuck' he thinks to himself. "Uh yeah I remember". 'This could be a problem'.

**Shield Helicarrier Holding cell**

Sitting in the dark room is a man that has lived a very long time. Even though he is older than most people which would give him a definite experience advantage he still manages to be beaten by a group of kids, and of course Wolverine. The large hairy man goes by the name of Sabertooth. His original name was Victor Creed but that was a long time ago. Now he is nothing but an animal looking for a purpose to live. The runt is always fun to track down but he needs something else, if only he knew his prayers were about to be answered.

There is a rumble all over the room and suddenly the door to his cell is ripped off its hinges and thrown back into the hallway. A man in red armor comes floating in, "I see the humans have finally been able to capture you." He said.

Sabertooth rises from his bunk, "I know who you are, what do you want?" he asks sternly as if he could actually harm the man in red armor.

"Service. I could make use of your talents. But not yet, for now you may go wherever you please. But when the time is right I will call upon you." The man in red armor leaves Sabertooth in the cell all alone, with no titanium door to keep him confined.

Sabertooth walks out into the hallway and just as he does an alarm goes off giving away his position. He looks around but no sign of the man in red armor but a big wide hole that probably leads to outside. He hears Shield soldiers approaching and decides to make a quick escape and jump out of the opening.

He does so and he immediately regrets it for he never realized just how high the Helicarrier was traveling. He was so high up that all he could see where clouds. 'This is gonna hurt' he thought to himself as he fell from the sky.

**Back at the Institute**

It is now night time and Dean is in the woods sitting by the same spot where thunder stroked the ground, he has for hours trying to hear something from the thunder god. But no answer, just silence. He wants to ask so many things, but he still hasn't figured out how to have a steady conversation with him yet.

It angers him how something is so out of his control, how he can't do anything about it. He takes a good look at his gauntlets and stares at them for a few minutes.

His eyes move away and he takes a second to look at his silver cross, 'why can't things be simple?' he thought.

All of a sudden he sniffs something different in the air, like a faint perfume smell. He then hears someone approaching, he turns his head to see who it is, and he finds Rogue slowly walking up to him. He turns back to look at the thunder spot again.

"Hey, What'cha doin out here?" Rogue asked as she came to a stop right beside Dean.

"Just wondering some things" Dean said.

"Like what?" she asked with curiosity in her voice.

Dean rises up, "A lot of things. Like am I the only person who's in some way related to the Gods? Because Zeus can't be the only one out there, all the other Gods are probably alive too. And if they're anything like the gods I've read about then there should be dozens if not hundreds of other Demigods…I guess that's kinda what I am."

"Well why do ya think that there are more of you?" she asked.

"Because in ancient Greek history the Gods would always fall in love with random humans and make babies with them, creating all the heroes of old." He said.

She puts her hand on his shoulder, "Well if there are others like ya out there then ya'll find um eventually."

"Yeah I guess, it's bad enough that I'm still getting used to this whole 'mutant' thing but now I have to deal with this other mess." He sighs "I'm sure everything will be fine in the end but it still bugs me to be so left out."

"Like ya said, in the end everything will be fine. Now let's go back inside before Logan comes looking for us." They make their way back.

"I really don't get why all of you are so afraid of him. All you need to do is go a few rounds with him and you'll see that he's as harmless as a fly." He said sarcastically.

Rogue looks at him skeptically, "You're weird".

"Well you have a white strip in your hair" he said in return.

Rogue puts her hands on her hips, "And what is that supposed ta mean?" she asked with a stern voice.

"It means that your head looks like a skunk." he says with a sly grin.

Rogue gasps, "You take that back"

Dean readies himself to run, "Make me" he says with a grin.

"Oh that's it ahm absorbing ya" she takes off her glove and starts chasing him around the yard.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

_Strange sensations_

Dean decided to go in the Danger room this morning to go through his exercises. He was getting more and more used to doing things in there where nobody would disturb him, except maybe Logan once in a while but that was still ok. There were so many things that the Danger room could do that he almost never wanted to leave, but he had a few ideas of his own. Like maybe the Danger room should have a gravity simulator, a simulation where there is increased gravity to provide enough resistance to actually give Dean a really tough workout. If that guy Forge ever comes to visit he's gonna definitely ask him if he can do that, because that would be awesome.

Right now Dean is working on his technique; Logan's sessions with him are really paying off. He speed definitely improved which it should when you have to keep up with someone like Logan. His strength probably increased a little bit too but probably not by much, the majority of the session is trying to catch up with Logan. Also he's slowly adapting Logan's style of 'randomness', it helps by being less predictable.

He punches with his right, then with his left, then he back spin kicks the invisible opponent. He presses his advantage by using a good combination of jabs and low kicks, he then jumps into the air and he throws a heavy downward punch but once he landed he felt something weird in his gut. All of a sudden his stomach is engulfed in pain, he grabs his gut hoping to comfort it but to no avail. Then the pain seems to move from his stomach all the way to his palms, he extends his arms outward hoping to be rid of this feeling when something jolts out of his hands and forms a sphere in front of him. He looks at it closely and for a moment he thought he saw a different place but then the sphere closed.

'What was that?' he thought to himself. The pain inside of him was gone just as fast as it came; he looked around to check if anybody had seen what just happened, nobody. He gets up, his hands were feeling sore for some reason, he's gonna have to talk the Professor about this later on. This could be trouble.

**Later on at Bayville High**

Rogue was on her way to chemistry thinking about something that had been happening lately. She had been having this dream of a woman with a baby running away from wolves for a while now, ever since she came to the institute actually. It's been getting worse every week. It seems to be getting longer as if it was a memory, but that's impossible because Rogue has never been chased out of a castle.

Rogue happens to see Dean around the corner, she motions to wave to him but stops when she spots Jean right next to him. She frowns, 'Why does she always get the attention?' she thought to herself. It seemed like whoever Rogue started to like Ms. Popularity would get all the attention from them and Rogue would remain invisible.

First it was with Scott, now the same thing was happening with Dean. Is she destined to live alone her whole life? She wishes she never was a mutant so she could have lived a normal life. Then out of nowhere, "Hey Rogue". She looks up and spots Dean waving, 'did he just notice me when he was with Jean?' she thought. "Um hey" she waves back, 'maybe there's hope after all' she thought with a smile on her face.

"So what do you have next?" Jean asked

"I have Global history, could be worse." Dean said optimistically.

"It could definitely be worse, I have physics. But lucky for me I find physics easy" Jean boasted.

"I'm sure that it does" Dean comes to a stop outside Jean's classroom, "So here we are"

"Thanks for walking me to class, so will I see you at lunch?" Jean asked.

Dean smirks, "It seems like somebody wants my company".

Jean can't help but blush, "Well maybe a little" she admits.

"Tell you what, I'll see what I can do but I'm not making any promises." he said.

"Ok then, see you later." She goes into the classroom. Around the corner someone else was watching this, Scott. Dean was really starting to replace Duncan, at least in his eyes. Why couldn't he ever just catch a break with Jean? It isn't like he hasn't been patient enough. They were the first two members at the institute, they grew up together. She and the Professor were there for him when no one else was.

**Flashback**

Scott opens his eyes and gasps, "Mom, Dad" he says out loud. He notices a man standing right in front of him.

"Shhhhhh" he comes up to Scott and pats him on the back, "Its ok son. You're fine" the man said.

"Where am I?" Scott asked looked around.

"You're in the hospital" the man said. "I'm Dr. Brooks, I've been-"

"I want to see my parents. Please, where are they!?" he asked.

The Doctor puts his hands on Scott's shoulders, "Scott, you need to calm down, okay? I'll explain everything."

"Now tell me the last thing you remember" the Doctor asked.

"My family…we were getting on a plane. We were in Alaska and…I don't remember what happened"

"You were in an accident. A plane crash." The Doctor explained.

"Where are my parents!? Where's Alex!?" Scott pleads.

The Doctor's face darkens, "I'm afraid your brother and your parents were not found."

Scott's eyes widen, "But-"sudden images come to his head, "But me and Alex had parachutes, I made sure I opened Alex's before mine."

"I'm sorry Scott but we didn't find him."

"No! He has to be alive, I know it. He can't be." He gets out of bed and falls to the floor due to his legs being too numb.

The doctor helps him up, "I'm afraid he had no choice Scott"

"Why?"

The doctor sighs, "Listen Scott, you've been asleep for a long time. We thought we lost you"

"How long?"

"One month". Scott's eyes widen with shock.

_A few years later at the Omaha meadows orphanage_

Scott walks out of the building and into the cold winter weather. As he's walking away some jocks purposely bump into him. The bigger one comes back and stands in Scott's way, "Tough guy, huh, Summers?" Scott tries to keep on waling but his path is blocked, "You trying to start something?"

"Just leave me alone, guys."

"What?" he grabs Scott by the coat, "You started it." he pushes him into the jockey behind him. "What's the matter? Can't back it up?" the other one says before pushing him back into the bigger one, then he punches him in the back and Scott falls to the ground. "Do something about it, punk."

Scott grunts in pain, "Come on man let's see it" the jockey said before kicking Scott in the head knocking him into the mud. They start to laugh at him.

Scott forms a fist in his hand and his eyes start to glow red, "I said leave me alone!" he blasts the bigger one into the air and he lands rock hard on the pavement.

Scott's eyes widen in shock and start to turn back to their normal color, "Oh man, oh man" the second one said. He starts to back away, "What are you? Are you some kind of monster?" he runs away.

"No. No, I'm not. Wait! Help me!" Scott yelled. He then clutches his head from the sudden jolt of pain and he grunts. "AAAAAHHHHHH" he yells out as he opens his eyes, red once more, a blast shot and hit the orphanage splitting it in half. He closes his eyes and yells out, "SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

_A few months later_

Scott is sitting inside some kind of mental institution, inside his cell he sits with a blindfold over his eyes. A man speaks from outside his cell, "Hello, Scott."

"Who's there?" he asked as the door opened and in comes rolling in a bald man in a wheelchair, but Scott couldn't see this. "My name is Charles Xavier. I understand you're frightened, but all is not lost. This is the first day of a very important journey in your life."

Scott doesn't answer. "Scott, I know what you're going through." The Professor said.

"No, you don't." Scott replies. "I'm a monster" Scott mutters.

"If you are" 'Then so am I" Scott heard the man's voice inside his head. 'At one time my telepathy was uncontrollable. I heard everyone's thoughts. I couldn't shut them out, couldn't think.' "I was losing my mind" he said out loud.

"What changed?" Scott asked.

"I learned that my abilities could be controlled, as can yours." He goes to remove the blindfold, "Don't!" Scott said.

"Just keep your eyes closed, son." He removes the blindfold and replaces it with a red visor, "Now look at me."

"No, I can't."

"It's alright, I promise. Just open your eyes."

Scott does so and when he does everything looks red, he looks around the room until he's staring at the man. "Now Scott, I'd like to take you away from here. To a place where you can see how truly special you are."

_At the Institute_

Scott exits from the danger room all soaked in water from the simulation, the Professor waiting outside for him. "I don't know why you even brought me here." He says while trying to get the water out of his uniform.

"You're too hard on yourself, Scott. This will all take time." The Professor pleaded.

"You're wrong about me. I'm no hero. I'm not cut out to be an X-man."

The Professor smirks, "Tell you what, that's enough training for today. Go dry off and we'll take a little drive."

_On the road_

"Where are we going?" Scott asked now wearing a more casual red visor.

"To meet a special friend of mine." The Professor said. He turns left and what Scott sees amazes him. Floating cars, "Whoa" Scott said.

"Indeed." They come to a stop outside a nice home and are let in by a middle aged man who then goes upstairs.

Scott leans closer to the Professor, "Him?" he asked.

The man comes back down but this time with someone else, "No, her."

Scott notices who the Professor is taking about and his jaw drops. He sees a beautiful young girl about his age, with red hair and green eyes wearing a pink shirt.

"Charles" The man says abruptly before giving out his hand.

"Good morning, John." The Professor shakes his hand. The Professor turns his attention to the young girl, "Hello, Jean". Jean stays silent behind her father.

"I'd like you both to meet a student of mine, Scott Summers." Scott shakes John's hand; Jean still remains behind her father.

"Jean how are you feeling?" The Professor asks her.

Her father bumps in, "You saw what's going on outside. She's a mess."

"Can you tell me why?"

"It's because of your old friend Eric. He came to visit her."

"What did he say?"

"I don't know. She got scared and ran inside. She won't talk about it."

"You must understand, this changes everything." Jean moves a little away from her father as to not be directly behind him so she can look at Scott. Scott notices this.

"What does he want?" John said. Jean sends him a warm smile.

"He wants her on his side" The Professor replied. Scott returns the warm smile. "Eric goes by Magneto now. And he's trying to assemble an army of powerful mutants."

"Does that mean he'll come back for her?"

"Most assuredly. And next time he won't ask first. He'll just take her."

"Jean won't let him" He puts his arm around Jean's shoulder and leads her to the couch.

"She may not be able to stop him. John…..I need more time with her. My weekly visits aren't enough. I'd like Jean to come and stay at the institute."

"No, she's too young."

"But you can't protect her like I can."

Jean puts her hand on her dad's shoulder, "Dad, I'd like to go with them."

**End Flashback**

After that they became best friends. She was there for him when no one else was. She made him forget about his own troubles. So why can't he seal the deal with her already? It's been almost two years since that day.

* * *

Dean had just sat down right by the window so he could look outside instead of listening to whatever the teacher was saying. He didn't feel like paying attention today, for some reason he just felt tired. He looked outside and he could see the students who had Physical education right now. Some were running track; others were throwing javelins, a bunch of stuff.

He spots Jean in the middle of all this holding a Javelin. Wait what? He looks back again and it really is her, didn't she have physics this period? He literally just dropped her off. Jean notices Dean from far away and waves to him, he waves back. Then all of a sudden she lets go off her javelin and falls to the ground as she clutches her head as if she was in pain. Her javelin floats up to the air and suddenly shoots straight forward like a bullet going towards a bunch of girls getting ready to race on the track.

Dean notices that among the girls there is Kitty, he fears about what is going to happen. The javelin plunges through all the girls killing them instantly. Dean's eyes widen with shock.

Then as Jean tries to move away she comes across some small metal balls, they float to the air and shoot out into different directions. One decapitates the phys. Ed teacher, the other one gets a random student, then another heads towards someone else. Scott, the metal ball takes his head off before going through another random student, Duncan.

He then notices a faint glow around Jean, it continues to grow. It grows to the point where Jean is engulfed in flames the shape of some kind of bird. It is then that Dean wakes up in the middle of class; he must of fell asleep or something. He looks out the window and everything is fine. 'What the hell was that? I never had a dream like that before' he thought to himself.

Crazy visions weren't part of the whole Achilles deal, or were they? There were so many things he needed to learn that were left out of the 'Legend' of Achilles that maybe it was. Maybe he has some secret ability that was never mentioned in the old stories, or maybe some ability that none of his ancestors could acquire. And Dean isn't even considering what the gauntlets might be able to do.

All of a sudden someone walks in to the classroom, obviously late. He notices that it's Eileen. "Excuse me young lady, but why are you so late?" Mr. Teacher asked. Dean couldn't remember his name.

Eileen turned to face him and gave him a look over. She approaches him and runs her finger down his shirt, "I was a little busy, you think that you could let it slide?" she said with a pretty smile.

Mr. Teacher was turning pale white. "I'll take that as a yes" she said before sitting down right next to Dean. The rest of the students started laughing and staring at Eileen.

"Miss me?" she said to Dean.

"It seems like you just can't get enough of me, can ya?" he asked.

"It seems like it" she said. "So what can you do? The other guys don't like to talk much about you but Mystique told me you beat them all at the same time."

"I did. And I'm sure that you'll find out soon enough just what I can do." He replied.

"Oh but I want to know what you can do now" she said as she put her hand on his chest feeling his physique, "That's a nice body you got there."

Dean takes her hand and gently places it on her desk, "That's not gonna work on me. Unlike 40 year old virgin there" he points to Mr. Teacher "I've actually been around women."

She smirks, "I thought so, and you look like the type that gets a lot of girls. So I figured I would have a little fun with you."

Dean raises an eyebrow, "Just a _little_ fun?"

"Oh who am I kidding, I want you all for myself" she moves her desk closer to his. "I want you to be my little boy toy." She said licking her lips.

"Yeah, I don't do _boy toy_ on the first date." 'At least not with someone as hormonal as you' he thought to himself.

She moves closer to the point where they're typically touching, "Then how about the second one?"

Dean pushes her desk away from his, "I don't think so". The bell rings signaling the end of class, "Well see you around" he said walking away.

"Definitely stud" she said before she smacked Dean's ass as he was walking away making him stagger a little.

**Later on at the Institute **

Everyone had gathered in the Danger room suited up for their daily training. Logan had yet to come out and inform them of what they were doing or what their objective was so they just sat there for a few minutes.

"What is taking so long?" Kitty complained.

"I know right, I don't think I've ever actually wanted to do a danger room session." Evan admitted.

"Don't jinx it, he might give us some crazy vorkout that ve're going to feel for weeks." Kurt said.

"Relax guys; Logan's probably setting up the simulation or something." Scott said.

"I just hope he hurries up because I'm getting bored." Dean said holding himself in the air with one hand.

Jean giggles at the sight of Dean, "What are you doing?"

"I'm keeping myself busy, plus this improves balance. Eventually I'll be doing push-ups like this." Dean said.

"I want to see what you're going to do when you run out of ways to push yourself." Scott said with probably a little too much satisfaction in his voice.

"Well there will always be ways to push yourself. But I get what you're saying and I already came up with an idea for that."

"And what's that?" Rogue asked suddenly interested in the conversation.

"Increased gravity" Dean said before pushing himself off the ground. He flipped in the air and landed safely on the floor like it was easy.

"Whoa wait a second that could be really dangerous. Do you realize how many things could go wrong with that?" Jean said sternly.

"Yeah I do, and like I said it's just an idea for now. It has the potential to be very helpful and very destructive; luckily my body can take a beating." Dean said with pride.

"But until then you'll just have to settle for me" someone said.

Everyone turned and saw Logan, "I was talking with the Professor about what I have planned for today and he agrees with me that it's ok."

"Uh-oh, this doesn't sound good for us." Kurt said.

"This is what's gonna happen, Achilles versus the rest of the team. I want to see how the rest of you do against him." He then looks at Dean "No swords".

"I wasn't even considering using them, it would be overkill." Dean said with a grin.

"Wait you actually think like that you stand a chance?" Kitty said.

"Well let's just say that I have faith in my ability." Dean said.

"I think this could be good for the team, yeah let's do it." Scott said. Dean noticed how Scott had no problem with the idea and was eager.

"Scott what are you talking about? This is a terrible idea, someone could be injured." Jean pleaded.

"We haven't seen much of Dean's abilities on the battlefield against real people so this is a good opportunity to test them plus it's a good team exercise." Scott said.

"We're doomed" Kurt and Evan said on unison.

"Alright everyone take your positions. Once the simulation starts you go, it ends when I say so." Logan walks into the observation room.

Dean stretched out, "Well guys good luck and no hard feelings."

"Wait, you have no problem with this?" Jean asked.

"Like Scott said" he looks over to him "This could be interesting".

"Alright X-men, be ready." Scott announces and they all take their positions. Dean goes into his stance, now looking slightly different. He's crouching less as to be more prepared to move.

The simulation turns into an open outdoors with a forest in the background and a lake behind him. The first thing that happens, Cyclops shoots an optic blast at Achilles, he dodges it with ease. He maneuvers quickly so he could be closer to the tree's, Spyke shoots spikes at him hoping to pin him to a tree, Achilles catches two of them and throws them back at Rogue who was trying to sneak behind him hoping to end things quickly by absorbing him. Rogue gets pined to a nearby tree.

Marvel girl telekinetically moves a boulder and throws it at Achilles, he ducks underneath it only to be met with an optic blast from Cyclops. Luckily he put his hands in front of him letting his gauntlets take the hit but as Cyclops keeps him busy Shadowcat phases behind him.

Achilles had stopped paying attention to Shadowcat due to her being one of the weaker ones, something he shouldn't have done. Shadowcat phases him through the ground leaving him buried down to his waist.

Achilles tries to deflect some of Cyclops' blast, he successfully does and it hits Marvel Girl knocking her down. "Jean!" Cyclops goes to check if she is ok, Achilles takes advantage of the situation and pushes himself out of the ground. It is then that Nightcrawler teleports behind him and grabs him before teleporting again.

Nightcrawler teleports about fifty feet above the lake and lets him go, luckily Achilles got a hold of Nightcrawler's tail before he teleported away. "Aaahhhh" he yelped.

They teleported back to the ground and Achilles slammed Nightcrawler into a tree knocking the wind out of him.

In the meantime Spyke had freed Rogue and Marvel Girl was back on her feet. They all started to come closer, and out of nowhere Achilles gets a familiar pain in his gut. He tries to ignore it as much as he can but the pain is too great. They surround him, "Rush him!" Scott announced as they got closer to him but before they could do anything there was a flash of light and they all vanished.

The simulation ended and Logan ran into the danger room looking around to see what happened but there was no trace of any of the X-men.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

_Death Trip_

**At the Institute**

"Logan calm down, now explain to me what happened." The Professor pleaded.

"I'm telling ya Chuck they just vanished! They were in the middle of a training session and there was this flash of light and poof! They were gone." Logan said.

"This is very troubling indeed" he thinks for a little as to what he's going to do "Call Forge and tell him to come here. He might be able to identify the means of how this all transpired. In the mean time I will do my best to figure it out myself."

**Elsewhere**

There was a flash of light and all the X-men landed in a different place from where they were a second ago. Dean rose from the ground, the pain in his gut now gone, and his eyes widened at what he was looking at. Above them almost lost in the gloom was a ceiling of stalactites. There was black volcanic sand stretched inland about a hundred yards to the base of a high stone wall, which marched off in either direction as far as he could see and there were these weird statues and broken buildings all around them. Most of the buildings and statues were broken but those which were still somewhat intact were freaky. There were some of these weird looking creatures, others of warriors in armor preparing to slaughter someone. The air was really hot and somehow there was reddish light coming from nowhere, faint screams of pain and terror could be heard in the distance.

"Oh-my-god" Kitty muttered.

"What happened man?" Evan said shaking.

"Where are we?" Jean asked full of concern.

Scott looks at Dean like he's expecting an answer, "Well? What happened?"

Dean sighs, "Guys" they all look at him "I think this was my fault".

"C'mon Dean why would you think this was your fault?" Jean asked.

Dean looks at her with serious eyes, and from his look she understood that he meant what he said. He explains to them what had happened earlier this morning and how the same thing had happened just moments ago.

"Wait I don't think teleporting was supposed to be part of your power set right?" Scott asked.

Dean shakes his head in disagreement, "No, it wasn't."

"Maybe it just wasn't mentioned at all" Evan said skeptically.

"No, something like that would have definitely been mentioned." Dean said.

"Well whatever it is we need to get out of here, this place is creepy, do you think you can do it again?" Scott asked.

"No, like I said it happens spontaneously. I can't control it." Dean admitted. "For now we should move, I have a feeling we shouldn't stay here." The rest agreed and started walking.

The 'place' they were in just had that hellish feeling to it, like something was definitely wrong with them being there and had this sulfurous smell to it, kinda like Kurt did when he teleported which kind of made Dean uneasy at that thought. As they moved along the faint screams seemed to get louder, more distinct. Dean was moving in the front leading the way, Jean stayed close to him, and this place seemed to get scarier as they kept moving.

Dean was compelled to grab the silver cross in his pocket, just touching it made him feel better. But if this place is what he thinks it is, that cross might do more harm than good.

Dean spotted in the distance some greenish light, the color of poison. It was slightly better than the dark red they were seeing. He approaches first and spotted something you definitely don't see every day. He saw a wooden barge full of what seemed people in gray hooded robes. The barge was being poled by a figure in a long black robe.

But the real question was what were they floating in? They were floating across a dark, oily river, swirling with bones, skulls, lost limbs, flesh that stunk worse than Toad did, and some places even had whole corpses or skeletons. Mist curled off the filthy water, the barge came to a stop by some craggy rocks, and the passengers began to disembark, a woman holding a little girls hand. An old man and an old woman hobbling along arm in arm. A boy no older than 12 shuffling silently along in his gray robe.

Dean started to approach when something came out of the dark oily river; a black skeleton crawled out or rather jumped out and grabbed Dean's heel.

Immediately Kitty started screaming and hid behind Kurt. The figure in the long black robe couldn't help but notice. Upon instinct Dean kicked the skeleton in the face sending it right back where it came from. Without him noticing the figure in the long black robe approached. As it came closer it was easier to notice some pretty important details that Dean missed before. He blinked making sure he wasn't seeing things but when he opened his eyes he saw that the figure had no face. It had a skeletal face; it was transparent, letting Dean See straight through his skull. Where his eyes should have been were empty sockets, they were totally dark, full of night and death and despair. Dean snapped out of it, this was no time to be dumbstruck, he had to be brave.

"Hey you!" he said with a dark voice as he pointed at the group with his boney finger "You all should be on the line, what are you doing?" as he came closer he noticed what they were wearing and found it kind of odd. "Wait a second" he leaned forward and took a sniff even though he had no nose, "You're not dead. I should've known."

"Dead?" Scott managed to say out loud in confusion. "What do you mean? Where are we?" he said with little confidence in his tone.

"You mean that you don't know where you are?" he said.

Dean was putting the pieces together, that hellish feel, the sounds of death, the black river, the boat full of people, the skeleton man. "We're in the Underworld" Dean said out loud. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy but they didn't deny it either.

"Hmmm" the skeleton man said before coming closer to Dean, he sniffed him out a little with his invisible nose, "You…..you smell like….." he pauses briefly out of surprise, "You're a Godling! Yes it's faint but I'd know that stench anywhere." He snarled.

For some reason the word 'Godling' didn't surprise Dean one bit. "What do you want?" Dean asked with more confidence than Scott managed avoiding the fact that he called him a Godling.

"Well now that you asked I would like to know HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET HERE WITHOUT MY HELP!?" the skeleton yelled. They were all surprised at his loud tone.

"We're not 100% sure yet, but from what I know I opened a portal that led us here." Dean said.

"GREAT! FIRST MORPHEAS FINDS A WAY TO GET DOWN HERE WITHOUT ME NOW THIS?" he yelled out as he paced back and forth.

"Well if we're that much of an inconvenience why don't you just bring us back?" Scott asked.

The skeleton man stopped pacing back and forth and stared at Scott before bursting out in laughter. "I don't think you read up on your history, I _bring_ people to the underworld, I don't return them to the world of the living."

"We'll can't you just make an exception because we're still alive?" Jean finally managed to talk behind Dean.

"Sorry beautiful but that's not my problem, it's yours." He said.

"But won't your boss be unhappy with having living people down here?" Dean pointed out.

The skeleton man analyzes the situation, "Hmm yes that could be bad for me. None of you look like you belong here. Except for you" he pointed to Kurt "You'll fit right in".

Kurt noticed this and it scared him, "Me? Vhy me?" he said even though he knew why, his appearance.

"We'll look at you, it's obvious you have demon blood in you." He said like it should have been obvious that he looked like a demon this whole time. Which it was, they just didn't want to say demon out loud in front of Kurt.

"D-d-demon?" Kurt started to studer with shock at what he was hearing. He never expected to actually be a demon; he just thought it was his mutation.

The skeleton man snapped his boney fingers, "I got it! I could just kill you all and that way I don't have to hear about it from my boss."

"Wait what? No that would be a terrible idea" Dean tried to appeal to the skeleton man but it was like he was invisible.

"Yeah that's a great idea. That will solve everything" He held out his hands and dark energy formed in them. The energy took shape into a Scythe, a curved long blade on a long wooden handle, the weapon of the grim reaper.

"Well kids, say bye-bye to life" he charged with his Scythe. Kitty and Evan were too afraid to do anything, Kurt was still too stunned from the revelation of at least one of his parents was a demon. Scott and Jean just froze on the spot which left only Dean.

Dean decided he had enough of the skeleton man; "No!" he shouted as he raises a hand and catches the Scythe right at the end of the long wooden handle. The actual blade was inches away from his face, but what he didn't notice was that his gauntlets were now glowing with bright white light.

The skeleton man let go of his weapon and backed away. He dropped to his knees, "Oh please I'm sorry, I didn't know you were a child of the big three, please don't hurt me." He begged.

Dean decided this was a good moment to press his advantage while he had it and get some answers out of him. He still had the scythe in his hand; he grabbed the other end with his hand and snapped it in two like a toothpick before tossing it into the dark oily river, the river Styx.

He walks up to the skeleton man and lifts him up by his black robe with one hand. "Now you listen to me! We need a way out of here and you're going to take us back"

"I told you I can't. The only way I can do that is if I'm ordered by the big man." He said

Dean was hoping he wouldn't have to encounter the god of the underworld but it seems like it was inevitable. Dean sets him down now that he calmed down a bit. "What do I call you?"

The skeleton man straightened out his black robe, "Charon".

"Charon, where can I find Hades?" he asked but when he said the God's name there was a rumble in the ground.

"That way" he pointed toward where the dead souls were walking to. "You'll know where to find him".

Dean was about to say something but he stopped when he heard a loud noise. A sound came from somewhere nearby outside the green gloom, echoing off the stones-the howl of a large animal.

"Old Three-face is hungry" Charon said. His smile turned skeletal in the greenish light. "Bad luck for you, Godling." Even though Dean was sure he could definitely beat him in a fight, Charon still creeped him out a bit.

Dean turned towards the rest of the team, "Guys, I know this is a lot to take in. It is for me too, all I'm asking of you is to keep it together for now. We need to keep a cool head if we're gonna get out of here."

Scott came up right next to him, "He's right. If were gonna get through this we need to work together, now let's go."

"I'd wish you luck but there isn't any down here." Charon said as they left.

They made their way to the line which was storming with creepy dead people. Their gray hooded robes now gone the X-men could see the full extent of brutal death. There was this one guy that was missing the back of his head, probably shot himself. This other woman was holding her daughter's hand and their whole bodies were full of bloody wounds, in some places bones were even sticking out. This other person was so screwed up they couldn't even tell if it was a girl or a guy. The 'person's whole front was flat and gruesomely bloody, she jumped off a building. Then there was this old man who was in a wheelchair that was rolling itself somehow. But the bizarre thing wasn't the wheelchair, it was the old man. He looked so thin, so deathly pale, so shriveled up; he looked like he was going to disintegrate into dust any second.

Jean started to look like she was panicking. What was she doing here? These people around her…they were dead. Jean grabbed hold of Dean's hand. Under normal circumstances this would've been something nice to consider, but he knew how she felt. She wanted reassurance that somebody else was alive in this place.

Scott was so worried that he didn't even notice. Rogue had grabbed a hold of his hand quickly but he didn't really notice that either.

Kurt, Kitty, and Evan were clinging close to each other. Every so often Kitty would puke at the sight of something really disgusting and gruesome. As expected.

The howling of the hungry animal was really loud now, but they couldn't see where it was coming from. The three-headed dog, Cerberus, who was supposed to guard Hade's door, was nowhere to be seen.

Around them were black-robed ghouls like Charon. But they had some distinct differences, like they had actual flesh (even thought it was old and moldy) and you couldn't see their faces at all. It was like staring into a bottomless pit of death.

They were probably here to make sure there is order. You know, so nobody skips the line, starts pushing, running, starting a commotion that holds up the line, anything that would put them behind schedule. That is if they even have one.

Up ahead there was more green mist. They got closer to it, the howling was so loud now it shook the ground at their feet, but they still couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Then, about fifty feet in front of them, the green mist shimmered. Standing just where the path split into three lanes was an enormous shadowy monster.

He looked like a purebred Rottweiler, except of course that he was the size of a mammoth, and had three heads. The dead walked right up to him-no fear at all. Two lines parted on either side of him. The third line of souls walked right between his front paws and under his belly, which they could do without even crouching.

The dog's middle head craned toward them. It sniffed the sulfurous air and growled. Dean noticed this and realized something, "I think Cerberus can smell the living."

"But that's ok" Evan said trembling next to Kitty and Kurt. "Because you have a plan right?"

"Right" Jean said. Dean had never heard her voice sound quite so small. "A plan." They continued to move toward the monster.

The middle head snarled at them, then barked so loud that Dean's ears almost popped from the amount of sound the beast generated, keep in mind Dean's very good hearing.

"Jean" he looked as confident as he could manage, "See if you can read its mind"

"Ok I'll try." She focuses on the crazy beasts mind. "I don't think I have a word that translates exactly."

Dean looked over to Evan, "Yo, make me the biggest spike you can manage."

"Ok man but I don't think he wants to play fetch" he made a long thick spick out of his forearm, almost like a staff.

"I never had a pet so I don't know exactly how to do this." Dean said approaching the beast slowly. "Hey big fella" he called up. "I bet they don't play with you much"

"GROWWWLLLL!"

"Good boy" he said a little weakly. He started waving the stick. The dog's middle head followed the movement. The other two heads trained their eyes on him, completely ignoring the souls. He had Cerberus's undivided attention. Which might not be a good thing.

"Fetch!" he threw the stick into the gloom, a good solid throw meant to keep Cerberus busy for a while, maybe thrown a little too far. They heard it go 'splash' in the river Styx. Cerberus glared at Dean, unimpressed. His eyes were baleful and cold.

So much for the plan.

Cerberus was now making a new kind of growl, deeper down in his three throats.

"Um," Jean said. "Dean?"

"Yeah?" Dean replied.

"I just thought you'd want to know." She said shaking.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Cerberus? He's saying we've got ten seconds to pray to the god of our choice. After that….well….he's hungry." Jean said.

"Ok then, I guess it's time to defend ourselves. X-men let him have it, Spyke you're up." Scott said. Evan approached slowly and shot some spikes at the monster, they harmlessly bounced off his skin.

"Ok let's see how it likes my optic blast!" Scott fired upon the beast, and when he stopped the beast still stood there unharmed growling a bit louder now.

'Uh-oh' Dean thought to himself.

"Five seconds" Jean said. "Do we run now?"

"Um" Dean thought, "Try lifting him up in the air."

Jean tried but no budge; he must've weighted a ton. "I can't he's too big."

"Alright then everyone back away and run cause we're about to play a game of tag with Cerberus" Dean said backing up a few steps, preparing for something.

"Wait, what are you going to do?!" Rogue asked panicking.

"I said run!" he yelled as he charged at Cerberus. Dean jumped in the air and punched Cerberus's middle head with all his might.

The second he did that the others ran for it, realizing what was about to happen.

Cerberus's middle head moved sideways from the force of the blow but the head moved right back to its original position, unharmed. Cerberus's red eyes, on all three heads, were staring right at the young half-blood ready to bite a chunk out of him.

"Come and get me you mutt!" Dean yelled at Cerberus as he took off full speed.

**At the Institute**

Forge had arrived not too long ago, with some of his own equipment. They skipped the pleasantries with Logan and Ororo and went straight to the Danger Room.

"This is where it happened" Logan pointed to the spot where he last saw the X-men.

"Ok, I'm going to equip the Danger room sensors to my Transdimensional Projector. I have a feeling they didn't just teleport somewhere." Forge said.

After an hour of connecting wires to the Transdimensional Projector from the observation room, Forge finally gets a chance to see exactly what happened.

"Ok, now let's see if we can figure out what happened here." Forge said before playing the recording of the training session the X-men were in.

He skips through the fighting and stops as he sees the flash of light. He rewinds to a few seconds before so he can see it on his own. He sees it but is not yet satisfied. He rewinds it once more and play's it in slow motion. He sees a gigantic portal open up around them and they vanish. He pauses at the moment the portal opens up and scans it with his equipment.

"It seems like I was right. There was a temporary opening in our dimension, long enough for them to go through to travel somewhere."

"Can you figure out where they went?" The Professor asked.

"Well they definitely aren't in this world. They must have traveled to a different dimension judging by what I'm seeing here." He looks inside the portal and can see some of the place inside, but he doesn't recognize it. At all.

"But how did this happen? Who or what opened that portal?" Ororo asked.

Forge rewinded the recording to the point of origin of the portal. He zoomed in on Dean and noticed energy around him growing; Forge rewinded the recording to before the portal opened. He watches Dean closely; he notices the sudden face of pain that Dean makes as energy comes out of his body. Forge freezes the picture, "Professor, I think I have the answer to your question right here."

The Professor looks at the screen showing Dean releasing the energy that created the portal. "Dean? But how?"

Logan and Ororo also look at the screen, "This doesn't make sense. How could the kid do something like that?"

The sudden realization hits Charles right in the head, "I know how this happened"

* * *

Cerberus ran after Dean barking and growling. He paid no attention to the other X-men for the time being.

Dean had to admit that Cerberus was fast, really fast. He looked back to see how close Cerberus was and he was almost right behind him.

'Shit' Dean thought. Dean sees one of those broken statues and runs towards it. He leaps towards it and jumps off it to get away from Cerberus.

Cerberus ran right through it, destroying it, and kept on chasing Dean like nothing happened.

Scott noticed that Dean was in trouble, it wouldn't be long until he was Cerberus's new chew toy.

"Everyone pair up! We need to help Dean" Scott yelled.

As Cerberus was chasing Dean he felt something hit his body. His left head looks over and spots Kurt and Evan shooting spikes at him. Cerberus runs at them and right before he can tackle the duo Kurt teleports himself and Evan away.

Cerberus comes to a stop right where Kurt teleported and started sniffing the sulfurous smoke that Kurt left behind.

Dean slides underneath Cerberus and kicks his stomach before running again, "Catch me if you can!"

Cerberus starts chasing Dean again. Eager to catch his target, Cerberus starts running full speed.

Right as Cerberus was about to strike, Dean stopped in his tracks and laid down flat on the floor.

Cerberus, running too fast to immediately stop, slid past him. He turned around looking for his target when all of a sudden he was hit with a red optic blast. Cerberus looks to where the blast came from and spots Scott and Jean, he runs at them

Jean levitated herself and Scott high up in the air to avoid any chance of being caught.

Cerberus started jumping in the air to try and grab Jean and Scott. He was about to get one of them when Dean came from underneath him and pulled him down from his tail, "No way!" Dean shouted.

Cerberus started chasing Dean once more until Rogue grabbed his attention by throwing some rocks at him. Cerberus leaped at Rogue and Kitty who were standing together and phased right through them.

Cerberus looked stunned, all three of his heads cocked sideways confused as to what just happened.

Once again Dean grabbed his attention and the other X-men continuously grabbed his attention for a short time before giving him back to Dean.

Unexpectedly, Cerberus spotted Rogue by herself, and ran at her. Rogue got separated from Kitty in the midst of all this.

Dean looks behind him and notices this, 'Uh oh' Dean thought to himself. Nobody was around to get her out of that situation so Dean took off at his top speed and tried his best to catch up with the beast.

Rogue started running but she couldn't outrun the beast.

Jean noticed this and instinctively tried to stop the beast with her telekinesis but she only managed to slow it down a little. Just enough for Dean to catch up and jump on its back.

"Alright c'mon you mutt let's see what you got!" Dean shouted holding on tightly to Cerberus.

Cerberus started jumping around in circles trying to remove the teen from its back like a bull.

As Dean was going through his joyride with Cerberus he noticed that all three heads had their tongues sticking out. Dogs sweat through their tongues so Dean knew what that meant, 'He's getting tired' Dean thought.

Dean started hitting the beast's ribcage to provoke him, "C'mon! That all you got!" he yelled.

Cerberus doubled his efforts and started moving around like crazy.

'That might have not been a good idea' Dean thought as he felt his grip slipping. After a couple more, Dean lost his grip on the beast and was sent flying through a broken statue and bounced off the ground a few times from the momentum. "Ow" Dean said.

Cerberus now looking for a new target spotted Kitty, "Hey! Over here!" She yelled to the beast.

Cerberus bared his teeth and ran at her. When he reached Kitty he was surprised to see that he couldn't even touch the teenage girl, yet alone eat her. He tried again, again, and again but his efforts were futile. After a couple of minutes of trying to touch Kitty Cerberus collapsed to the floor exhausted and panting. Cerberus whimpered, probably sad that he failed his master.

Kitty looked at the tired beast and felt sorry for it, "Aww he looks so sad" she said as she approached it. She went up to the beast and started petting it.

"Kitty what are you doing?!" Scott asked panicking.

"I'm being nice to him" Kitty said as she continued to pet it. Kitty then started rubbing the beast's belly. Cerberus's tail started wiggling and he looked like he was enjoying the belly rub.

Cerberus then sat up a second later and stared at Kitty.

"Sit boy!" Kitty said to him.

The others were all sure that any moment now Kitty would be living dog food. But instead, Cerberus licked his three sets of lips, shifted on his haunches, and sat.

Kitty said, "Good boy!" she started scratching under his ears. Cerberus started licking her with all three of his heads. Kitty turned toward the others. "Go now."

Evan said, "But-"

"Now!" she ordered.

The group inched forward warily.

Cerberus started to growl.

"Stay!" Kitty ordered the monster.

Cerberus whimpered, but he stayed where he was.

"What about you?" Scott asked as he passed her.

"I know what I'm doing, Scott," she muttered. "At least, I'm pretty sure…."

"Never mind that we gotta move, those other guys in the hoods might stop us if they figure out were alive. Let's make a run for it." Dean said hastily. He also was amazed at Kitty's bravery but he didn't want to risk being jumped by a group of grim reapers.

"Good boy," Kitty said as she was forced to leave the beast by himself. But her voice was full of melancholy and uncertainty. The monster's heads turned sideways, as if it worried about her.

"Good dog. I'll come visit you soon. I-I promise." Kitty turned to her teammates. "Let's go." The monster whimpered as she left.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

_Death Trip: Part 2_

**In the Underworld**

The X-men pushed through the line quickly, which immediately alerted the security ghouls. "The living have trespassed!" the yelled as they chased the X-men.

Cerberus started to bark. They burst through the gates the dead were all entering which attracted even more attention to the X-men, and raced farther into the underworld.

A few minutes later, they were hiding, out of breath, except for Dean, behind the rotten trunk of an immense black tree as the security ghouls passed by, yelling in rage or what they guessed sounded like an enraged ghoul. They waited for the ghouls to pass before moving on.

As they did they stumbled across a new type of landscape, the fields of Asphodel, basically purgatory. There was black grass that looked like it had been trampled by hundreds of dead feet. A warm, moist wind blew like the breath of a swamp. Black trees that no one could identify grew in clumps all around. The cavern ceiling was so high above them that it might've been a bank of storm clouds, except for the stalactites, which glowed faint gray and looked wickedly pointed.

The X-men tried not to imagine they'd fall on them at any moment, but dotted around the fields were several that had fallen and impaled themselves in the black grass. The dead probably didn't have to worry about little hazards like being speared by stalactites the size of booster rockets.

They ran into the crowd of souls staying close to each other trying to lose the ghouls for good. They tried to blend into the crowd as much as they could, keeping an eye out for the security ghouls. Although it would be hard to find them in the whispering masses of people that were just milling around in the shadows.

They tried to move through the crowd as fast as they could but looking at all the lost souls was really distracting. Their faces shimmered. They all looked slightly angry or confused. They would come up to one of the X-men and speak, but their voices sounded like chatter, like bats twittering. Once the souls realized that the X-men couldn't understand them they would frown and move away.

So they weren't just freaky, they were sad too.

The X-men crept along, following the line of new arrivals toward a black-tented pavilion with a banner that had weird writing on it.

Dean took a closer look, he recognized the writing. It was ancient Greek, the language of his ancestors. He knew this because when he lived in Greece he learned a little bit, but for some reason it came easy to him. Probably him being a 'Godling' as Charon said before.

The banner said: JUDGMENTS FOR ELYSIUM AND ETERNAL DAMNATION

Out of the back of the tent came two much smaller lines. To the left, souls flanked by security ghouls (not the ones the X-men were being chased by) were marched down a rocky path toward the fields of punishment. How did Dean know it was the field of punishment? Well let's see. It glowed and smoked in the distance, a vast, cracked wasteland with rivers of lava and minefields and even miles of barbed wire separating the different torture areas.

Even from far away, Dean could see people being chased by hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches or listen to opera music. Very loud and screeching opera. And he saw worse tortures, too….things that won't be described. So yeah if this wasn't the field of punishment then he would definitely not want to see it.

The line coming from the right side of the judgment pavilion was much better. This one led down toward a small valley surrounded by walls….a gated community, which seemed to be the only happy part of the Underworld. Beyond the security gate were neighborhoods of beautiful houses from every time period in history, Roman villas and medieval castles and Victorian mansions. Silver and Gold flowers bloomed on the lawns. The grass rippled in rainbow colors. In the middle of that valley was a glittering blue lake, he could hear laughter and smell barbecue cooking. Looking over the beautiful landscape put a word in his head, Elysium, that world's heaven.

'That's the place for heroes' Dean thought to himself. But this was no time to stand there and admire its beauty. They had to find Hades.

They left the judgment pavilion and moved deeper into the Asphodel fields. It got darker. The non-black colors faded from their uniforms. The crowds of chattering spirits began to thin. In the distance looming on the horizon was a palace of glittering black obsidian. That's where they needed to go.

They got closer to the dark palace. They spotted three bat-like creatures high in the gloom circling the parapets. Dean couldn't really make out details but those things could be one of two things: Harpies or the Furies. Right now was not the time to try and decipher which one they were. The outer walls of the fortress glittered black, and the two story tall bronze gates stood wide open.

Up close, they saw that the engravings on the gates were scenes of death. Some were from modern times….an atomic bomb exploding over a city, a trench filled with gas mask wearing soldiers, a line of African famine victims waiting with empty bowls…but all of them looked as if they'd been etched into the bronze thousands of years ago.

Inside the courtyard was the strangest garden the X-men have ever seen. Multicolored mushrooms, poisonous shrubs, and weird luminous plants grew without sunlight. Precious jewels made up for the lack of flowers, piles of rubies as big as Dean's fist, clumps of raw diamonds. Standing here and there like frozen party guests were statues….unlike the ones they saw before these actually looked human, sort of. Petrified children, these guys that had goat legs, satyrs, other guys that had a horse's lower body, centaurs…..all smiling grotesquely.

In the center of the garden was an orchard of pomegranate trees, their orange blooms neon bright in the dark. "The garden of Persephone," Dean said before frowning, "Keep walking."

"Ah but vhy? I'm starving here; I haven't eaten anything in hours." Kurt said rubbing his aching belly, the tart smell of those pomegranates was overwhelming to Kurt. "Oh just one little bit von't hurt." He said reaching for one of the juicy pomegranates.

Dean grabbed his hand that was mere inches away from the juicy fruit. "Don't. You. Dare." He said sternly.

Kurt got aggravated and pulled his hand back, "Vhy not?" he grabbed the fruit and went to bite into it. Dean slapped the fruit out of his hands, "Hey!" Kurt protested.

"I told you don't eat it. If you eat a single piece of fruit you will forever regret it." Dean said returning to the front of the group, "Now let's keep moving, we're almost there."

Kurt stayed at the back mad at Dean for not letting him eat, 'who does he think he is not letting me eat?' Kurt thought to himself before picking the fruit up again.

Jean picked up on his thoughts and saw the anger on Kurt's face; she made her way to the back with Kurt, "I really wouldn't eat that if I were you."

Kurt sighed heavily, "Not you too. Why can't I eat? Aren't you hungry too?" Kurt protested.

"Yes Kurt I am hungry, but there's a reason why I'm not eating, why any of us shouldn't be eating." She took the fruit from his hands and showed it to him, "One bite of Underworld food, and we would never be able to leave. We would be stuck here forever." She threw the fruit away.

The realization hit Kurt right in the face, "Oh no. I'm such a jerk; I totally forgot the story of Persephone. It's just the fruit-"

"I know Kurt" Jean said understanding his pain, "I know they smell beautiful but you have to resist. Ok?"

"Yeah" Kurt said moving along.

They walked up the steps of the palace, between black columns, through a black marble portico, and into the house of Hades. The entry hall had a polished bronze floor, which seemed to boil in the reflected torchlight. The ceiling was filled with different drawings of great battles. One was of a man strangling a lion, Hercules and the Nemean lion. Another of a man holding the decapitated head of a woman with snakes for hair, Perseus and Medusa. A man holding a goat skin, Jason with the Golden Fleece. A man battling another man who had a bull head, Theseus and the Minotaur. Another of a man wearing nothing but a loincloth and helmet on a chariot charging at an army of hundreds, Achilles. That one made him feel proud.

There were a bunch of others that he didn't recognize; they seemed more recent than the ones with the Greek heroes. But then he stumbled upon two that really caught his interest.

One drawing was of two warriors battling. One of them was huge with armor all over his body except his head, definitely could be a giant, the other was normal sized but he had one sword In his hands lunging at the giant. He looked closely at that one and the smaller warrior seemed familiar somehow but Dean couldn't place it.

The second one was similar in only one way, again there were two. But this time it was clear that they weren't warriors. No, they were gods. One was dressed in full battle armor; the other looked like a Pharaoh or something. They both floated in mid air and looked as if they were about to charge at each other and use the earth as their battleground.

The last one looked epic, one of those battles that would echo in eternity from its magnitude. Dean refocused himself on the task at hand; every side doorway was guarded by a skeleton in military gear. Some wore Greek armor, some British redcoat uniforms, some camouflage with tattered American flags on the shoulders. They carried spears or muskets or M-16s. None of them bothered the X-men, but their hollow eye sockets followed them as they walked down the hall, toward the big set of doors at the opposite end.

Two U.S. Marine skeletons guarded the doors. They grinned down at them, rocket-propelled grenade launchers held across their chests.

"You know," Scott mumbled, "I bet Hades doesn't have trouble with door-to-door salesmen." Nobody laughed or even smiled.

"Well, guys," Dean said. "I suppose we should…knock?"

A hot wind blew down the corridor, and the doors swung open. The guards stepped aside. "I guess that means like enter." Kitty said.

They entered into a vast throne room with black marble walls and bronze floors. All their eyes peered to the end of the room where Hades sat on his throne. He was at least ten feet tall, for one thing, and dressed in black silk robes and a crown of braided gold. His skin was albino white, his hair shoulder length and jet black. He wasn't bulked up but he radiated power. He lounged on his throne of fused human bones, looking lithe, graceful, and dangerous as a panther.

He seemed like the kind of person that should be giving orders. Dean gave him a good look over. The Lord of the Dead resembled pictures he'd seen of Adolph Hitler, or Napoleon, or the terrorist leaders who direct suicide bombers. Hades had the same intense eyes, the same kind of mesmerizing, evil charisma.

"**So these are the intruders I sensed,**" he said in an oily voice. He immediately gazed upon Dean, "**You are either very brave or very foolish to come here, champion of Zeus.**"

Sudden numbness crept into Dean's joints, tempting him to lie down, curl up and sleep at Hades's feet forever. This must be what it's like to be in the presence of a God. His aura was affecting the way Dean was feeling, making him want to enter eternal sleep. He fought the feeling and stepped forward.

"Lord Hades, I come before you with a request." Dean said as nicely as he could muster.

Hades raised an eyebrow. When he sat forward in his throne, shadowy faces appeared in the folds of his black robes, faces of torment, as if the garment were stitched of trapped souls from the Fields of Punishment, trying to get out.

"**Only a request?**" Hades said amusingly. He started laughing deeply; the throne room echoed his laughter. "**Speak, then. It amuses me not to strike you dead yet.**" He said as if it was totally normal for him to kill someone for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

This was going as well as Dean had expected. He glanced at the empty, smaller throne next to Hades's. It was shaped like a black flower, gilded with gold. Dean wished Queen Persephone were there. He recalled something in the myths about how she could calm her husband's moods. But it was summer. Of course, Persephone would be above in the world of light with her mother, the goddess of agriculture, Demeter. Her visits, not the tilt of the planet, create the seasons.

Jean cleared her throat and stepped forward with Dean. "Lord Hades," she said. "Look, sir, there has been a mistake. We didn't mean to end up in your domain, it was an accident."

The Lord of the Dead narrowed his eyes upon Jean as if he were studying her very soul. "**An accident you say Ms. Grey? Enlighten me on how you 'accidentally' came to my domain.**" He said expecting a good explanation.

Jean looked at Dean for help with that subject. Normally Jean doesn't have any problem speaking to strangers; she's been that way from an early age. But in this specific case she was clueless as to how they ended up here.

"It was my fault. Something happened inside of me and I accidentally created a portal that led us here." Dean said singling himself out. "My request….our request is that you assist us in returning to the world of the living for I still don't know how to control this newfound power of mine."

Hades listened carefully to Dean's words. Not to the request plea but to the fact that someone from the world of the living can travel to his world whenever they feel like it, and with as much company as they wish apparently. "**This is interesting. Warriors of Zeus have never been known to have such…odd but useful abilities. It raises the question whether I should consider you a threat.**" He said.

"A threat? What could I do against a god like you?" Dean asked with curiosity, cause really. What could a mortal do against a god? Couldn't they just zap you and turn into a random animal of their choosing?

Hades smiles for a second, "**Well maybe not directly against me,**" his smile fades into a frown "**But you could be a nuisance transporting dead or living souls back and forth.**"

"I assure you I would do no such thing." Dean said.

"**Well I cannot simply take your word so I will just have to kill all of you**" he said with a grin. Suddenly the doors burst open all along the walls, and skeletal warriors marched in, hundreds of them, from every time period and nation in the world. They lined the perimeter of the room, blocking the exits.

"Things aren't looking too good for us guys." Scott said powering up his visor.

Spyke sprout spikes all over himself, "I don't wanna die, I'm too young."

Dean tried to think of something to say quickly before they're really stuck here forever. "Um hold on a second, won't Zeus be mad if you kill me and my friends?" Dean asked the lord of the dead.

"**No, warriors like you can always be replaced.**" Hades said. The skeletal soldiers all took one step forward, making their weapons ready.

Dean tried to mentally contact Zeus, 'Now would be a very good time to show up and help me out'. No answer. He was all alone, him and the X-men.

At that point, each and every X-man was terrified. The strange thing was Dean felt kind of excited about a fight like this. Nothing gets him more excited than trying to beat impossible odds. Of course by impossible he means very very difficult, he probably couldn't beat Cerberus in a fight. Now if he had the right weapon with him that would be another story.

Then suddenly an idea struck him, impossible odds? Overconfident God? A chance to live and beat up a bunch of dead guys? Perfect.

"HEY HADES!" Dean yells out. The skeletal soldiers stop in their tracks.

"**What is it now?**" he asked with an irritated tone.

"How long do you think me and my friends can last against your guards here?" Dean asked.

"**How long you can last against my guards? Hahahahaha**" his laughter echoed through the throne room, "**You couldn't last more than 5 minutes.**" He said full of confidence in his skeletal soldiers.

"Well I think you're foolish to think that." Dean said with a grin. Hearing that everyone but Dean and Hades froze where they were.

Hades scowled at Dean and his eyes grew dangerously bright. The throne room shook with a tremor so strong, they probably felt it upstairs in the real world. Debris fell from the rocky ceiling. "**Watch your tongue boy; don't forget who you're talking to. Now where are you going with this?**"

"I bet that I and my friends can stay alive longer than 10 minutes." He said.

Hade's scowl lessened upon Dean, "**Ah a bet then. What do you wager?**"

Dean turns to his teammates, "Guys, you're going to have to trust me on this one."

"What exactly are you going to wager?" Scott asked.

"That doesn't matter. What matters is can you guys stay alive for 10 minutes?"

They all looked at each other for mental support; this was going to be their fiercest fight yet. But could they do it? There was only one way to find out. "We're going to have to if we want to get out of here. Go for it." Scott said.

Dean turned around to face Hades. "Here's my wager. If we last more than 10 minutes against your guards then you send us back to the world of the living. If we don't and we end up dying….we will serve you for all eternity." Dean said that last part hesitantly.

The X-men didn't like those odds but they couldn't argue at this point, it was either that or just simply dying right then and there. Hades face went blank for a split second before turning into a wide grin. "**You really are foolish godling, fine you have a deal.**"

Before Dean could say anything else he heard a voice in his head, '**_Swear on the Styx_**_'_. At this point Dean accepted any help he could get, he could complain to Zeus later for not helping him sooner. 'Styx? Oh the river Styx' Dean thought. "Swear on the river Styx" Dean said.

Hades's grin shrank a little but it was still there. "**I swear.**" He said. "**Now, begin!**"

The skeletons aimed their weapons.

"X-men take'em down!" Cyclops yelled. "Marvel girl, take their weapons". She lifted the majority of them, she made sure to take away all the M-16s. They floated in the air and were mashed into a ball, Cyclops then blasted the ball of weapons into ashes. "That'll even the odd a bit."

Hades look surprised at the sight of Jean and Scott using their abilities, as if he didn't know or forgot that they were all mutants. Dean was counting on it, he had a feeling that the lord of the dead didn't know his 'friends' were mutants.

Achilles jumped into the air and landed on top of a skeletal samurai warrior toppling him, he grabbed the samurai sword in the skeletal warrior's hand and started fighting other armed warriors.

Spyke shot bone spikes at the skeletal army; this was a rare opportunity for Spyke because he usually can't directly hit anyone with his spikes out of fear that he could kill them or severely hurt them. In this case he didn't have to worry because his opponents were already dead. This helped a lot.

Spyke shot a spike right in the face of a Viking, immediately the skeletal warrior collapsed to the bronze floor. He shot another spike, this one a bit longer, it impaled a British redcoat and pinned him to the black marble wall.

Nightcrawler was also doing well, he had attacked a weird looking guy who was either French or English judging by his outfit, and he had one of those round white things around his neck that looked like one of those collars that dogs wear sometimes that look like satellites. He was carrying a rapier sword which was good for Nightcrawler because he was an expert at fencing.

Nightcrawler teleported behind another skeletal warrior and sliced him in half, unfortunately the separate warrior halves were still alive and moving. "Uhhh that's nasty!" Nightcrawler decided to leave the chopped warrior where he was and continue to fight somewhere else.

Rogue was having a blast now that she could focus on something else besides this creepy place. She was going at it with the unarmed skeletal warriors. Since she had no real offensive powers, and there was no way in hell she was going to try and absorb one of these dead beats, she stuck to her hand to hand combat.

She was the only X-man besides Dean that really knew hand to hand combat. Kitty was starting to learn a little from Logan's karate sessions he had with the X-men once in a while. Dean did not participate for obvious reasons. Rogue not only had to learn it but also really liked it, she enjoyed hitting the punching bag in the gym and this was a similar situation.

There were a few skeletal warriors that were wearing armor which made it a little tricky but nothing she couldn't handle. An unarmed Knight came towards Rogue, Rogue sidestepped and used his momentum to swing him around and throw him into a pile of other skeletal warriors. "Strike!" she yelled with enthusiasm.

Shadowcat was having the most trouble out of everybody. For some reason she couldn't phase through the ground underneath her, maybe it was enchanted or something? So she was forced to constantly phase through her enemies for a quick escape. She came across a warrior that was mostly covered in chainmail and had weird symbols all over him; he looked like he belonged in that Mel Gibson movie Braveheart.

Then an Egyptian warrior charged at her with his Khopesh sword, a blade that started out straight but then made an arc towards the end of it. The warrior slashed at Shadowcat but the blade phased through her as if she was a ghost. Another slash, the same result. The Egyptian warrior was quick; Shadowcat had to handle this carefully. She lets the skeletal warrior slash again and after it phases through her she kicks it in the face decapitating it. The rest of the body momentarily stands there before attacking again without a head. Shadowcat squealed, "Ew ew ew!"

Marvel Girl found herself surrounded, lots of the skeletal warriors were very upset she took away their weapons and now they wanted payback. She formed a telekinetic shield around herself and expanded it to give herself some breathing room. Cyclops was near her so he started clearing out skeletons with his optic blasts. Cyclops had to be careful because a full power blast might accidentally hurt one of his team mates which means in this case he's shooting them one by one with weaker blasts.

Achilles was preoccupied with fighting a Roman Legionnaire and a Greek warrior. The Greek warrior didn't wear anything specific which made it difficult to identify where he was from. He wore traditional Greek armor but the one thing that stood out was his bronze short sword that was slightly glowing. Achilles was a little busy to pay any more attention to it.

Achilles blocked a blow from the Legionnaire and dodged a thrust from the Greek warrior. Achilles then slashed at the Greek but he blocked with his bronze shield. The bronze shield was tough to get around; it was almost as large as his torso which covered like 80% of his body when he was on the defensive. When attacking it with the Steel Katana Achilles was using it would slide off as if it was smothered in butter. He would have to find a weak spot in the Greek's defenses.

The steel katana felt foreign in Achilles hands, he wasn't used to handling two-handed weapons but he quickly adjusted.

The Legionnaire wasn't as tough because he had lost his shield, thanks to Marvel Girl. But whenever he tried to finish off the Roman the Greek would step in and vice versa. He would have to attack at a precise moment. Achilles decided to go for the Greek's feet, he managed to get him and knock him over. As expected the Roman stepped in but this time Achilles was prepared. He did a quick slash with his katana removing the hand which held the Gladius, the Roman short sword, and then he back kicked the Roman in the chest sending him flying into other skeletal warriors.

Achilles picked up the Gladius which he felt more comfortable with using. He spotted the Greek was up again and came up with a quick plan to end it, he threw the katana at the Greek like a spear straight towards his face. As expected the Greek lifted his shield to block which left him blind. Achilles ran and after the katana had been stuck inside the bronze shield, the Greek peaked his head out which left him wide open. Achilles jumped into the air and thrust his sword into the side of the skeletal warrior's neck and removed it quickly shattering his spine in mid-air. The Greek collapsed; Achilles picked up the glowing bronze sword and examined it. It was interesting; if he could he would bring it with him.

When the fighting had passed the 10 minute point Hades yelled, "**Enough!**" Both X-men and skeletal warriors stopped at his demand. Dean could tell from Hades's dark and angry face that he was extremely pissed off; his eyes were getting very bright again. He should have known the Godling was hiding something when he bet servitude for all eternity. Of all things he could have expected, mutants were definitely not one of them. They were still relatively new to him so he didn't know very much about them, but after today he would pay close attention to them.

"**A deal is a deal.**" He waved his hand and all the skeletal warriors returned from where they came from. "**But know this Godling. You now have my attention; I will be watching you and your friends carefully.**" Hades loosed a ball of gold fire from his palm. It exploded a few feet away from the X-men, and there was the danger room. "**Now leave my presence!**" he said in a commanding voice.

Dean quickly put the glowing bronze sword on his belt on his backside so Hades wouldn't see it, he dropped the Gladius. Kurt saw that and he dropped the rapier and then they all entered the portal.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

_After effects _

**At the Institute**

The Professor and the others were still waiting in the observation room. They figured if they couldn't do anything to open a portal they could at least wait by the spot where the portal originally opened. After the Professor had figured out what had happened, or so he says, he explained that he would rather wait to announce his 'theory' as to how this all happened.

Storm was sitting at the edge of the room trying not to worry about her nephew Evan. It was hard not to worry about him when she technically promised her sister that she would personally make sure he would be protected. And after all he is her favorite nephew, and her only nephew. She hoped that Evan would return safely.

Forge kept himself busy by tinkering with the Danger Room; he tried to keep the room updated as much as possible. That meaning updated to Forge's standards, he was always figuring out new ways to improve. Eventually he would have to live here to keep the Danger Room updated. Which of course will happen eventually but not now, he's not ready to leave his parents just yet. It had only been a couple months since his rescue from the middleverse and he still was getting used to the outside world.

Logan was pacing back and forth across the room. He was getting tired of waiting and not taking action, the thing was that he had no clue how to take action. If he did he definitely would not be there right now. The X-men had been gone for hours and there was nothing he could do to get them back, it was infuriating.

All of a sudden while Forge was tinkering with the Danger Room an alarm goes off. Everyone stops what they're doing and looks at the screen, "The danger room sensors are picking up a strange type of energy" Forge said.

"Does that mean that-"Logan is interrupted by a flash of light inside the danger room. Everyone looks and spots the same type of portal that showed up on the replay earlier. Then a second later the X-men walk out of it one by one. The three adults and Forge quickly make their way downstairs into the danger room.

"Goodness are you all alright?" The Professor asked.

Storm runs up to Evan and embraces him in a hug, "What happened to you? Why were you gone for so long?"

Everybody was dead silent; they all were looking at Dean to explain everything.

"Somebody better say something, you're starting to scare me a little" Storm said.

Dean stepped forward, "Listen, it's a really long story."

Before Dean could say anything else the Professor speaks up, "You don't have to say anything right now, it is clear that your little trip has taken its toll on you. It is quite late, you should all get some sleep, and it is a school night after all. Tomorrow after school I want you all to meet with me so you can explain to me what happened. That is all for now, we are glad to have you back."

Logan can agree with the Professor on one thing, they all look exhausted. Maybe it is better off to ask questions tomorrow, they could definitely use some rest. The X-men make their way out.

As Dean was walking away, the Professor came up to him, "Dean before you go I would like for you to meet Forge, I don't believe you two have met before" the Professor said gesturing to the person Dean didn't recognize.

Dean's mood lightens up a little at the sound of his name. He gives him his hand, "It's nice to finally meet you Forge, I've wanted to meet you ever since I heard what you can do. I have an idea for the Danger Room that could be useful for training."

Forge returns the gesture, "It's nice to meet you too, and what would that idea be?"

"Have you ever thought about increased gravity?"

Forge thinks about it, "Well no, actually I haven't. It would be a very straining exercise for sure, but I'm not sure whether it would do internal damage as well."

"Well this is what I was thinking, while you're here at the institute you could build it and we could test it on me. Out of the X-men, me and Logan are the most qualified to test it. We can check whether it affects internal organs or not and see where it leads."

"Hold on a sec kid, if anyone is going to do the test drive it's going to be me." Logan said.

"In any other case I wouldn't mind, but this time I have to insist on you letting me handle this one." Dean said.

"And why is that?" Logan asked.

"Well your adamantium skeleton is why. It's obvious that that much metal slows you down, a lot. Now imagine all that weight, plus your own multiplied. I don't think you would be able to move very well compared to me."

Logan thinks about it and Dean's theory makes sense, "Fine then, you can test it but I still don't approve."

"Ok then, I'll actually start working on it right now. I usually work late on projects anyways." Forge said heading up to the observation room.

"And on that note I am going to bed." Dean said walking away.

* * *

Kurt decided to take a few minutes to talk to Dean before he went to sleep for the night. He hadn't forgotten the way he acted towards him earlier today and didn't want to lose a friend over food of all things.

Kurt comes to a stop outside Dean's room and goes to knock but before he can Dean opens the door. There is an awkward silence between them. Kurt decides to say something before it gets even weirder. "Um hey" Kurt said.

"Hey, you need something?" Dean asked.

"Can I come in?" Kurt asked.

"Sure" Dean replied.

Kurt enters the room and waits for Dean to close the door to start. "Ummmm" he scratches the back of his head, "I vanted to talk to you about what happened earlier."

"Can you be a little bit more specific because a lot of things happened earlier" Dean said in reference to the little trip they took.

"I vanted to say I'm sorry for the vay I acted about the fruit. I had totally forgotten that if I ate it I vould have been trapped in the undervorld forever."

"Hey don't sweat it" he put his hand on Kurt's shoulder, "I probably shouldn't have been that mean but I guess that 'place' got to me. And if anybody should be apologizing it should be me considering I brought us there."

"No, it vasn't your fault. You couldn't control it."

"Yeah well I don't plan on letting that happen again." Dean sighs and notices Kurt's uneasiness. "So how are you holding up?" he asked sincerely.

"Vell, like everyone else I think. A little freaked out to the fact that ve technically vent to hell, or that ve saw dead souls, or that ve fought dead souls, or that zhe God of the undervorld has it out for us now." Kurt replied.

"You know what I mean" Dean said with the utmost serious tone.

Kurt realizes that Dean was referring to the revelation to a possible parent for Kurt. "I honestly don't know vhat to think, vho knows if he vas even telling zhe truth."

"Charon didn't seem to gain anything by it so I don't get why he would say that and not mean it." Dean notices the sadness on Kurt's face and decides to take an easier approach, "Look, unless you find one of your birth parents and ask them, no one will ever be sure who or what they are. So don't let it go to your head, your still the same harmless blue fuzz ball to me." Dean said trying to lighten the mood.

Dean's joke actually made Kurt giggle a little bit. "Yeah I guess you're right, thanks" Kurt said smiling.

"No problem, I'll see you in the morning."

"Ok" Kurt teleports away leaving a trail of blue smoke.

"I hate it when he does that" Dean said smelling the sulfurous smoke.

* * *

Dean just couldn't fall asleep for some reason. Whether it was his adventure to the underworld or the fact that for once he showed major inexperience with the way he opened a portal by accident he doesn't really know. But you had to admit, that was a cool trip, aside from all the gory sights that is.

He actually met a God, but he didn't feel honored to have done that. Hades was definitely not on his top 5 list of Olympians he would want to meet, heck not even the top 10. He would have rather met Poseidon, or if it was a girl he would have liked Aphrodite. And don't say that you wouldn't because you know that you would want to meet 'Her'. Yeah I'm talking to you random reader.

But on top of all that he put his new friends and teammates in danger. Could they ever really forgive him for that? Dean could only hope the others would be as forgiving as Kurt.

Dean decides that he's had enough of worrying for one night and gets out of bed. He looks out his window to see if anyone is on the premises. Nobody, Dean glances over to the bronze sword he took from the dead skeletal warrior. He takes the short sword, opens his window and jumps out.

He lands softly on the grass. He feels the wet freshly cut grass with his bare feet. He inhales filling his lungs with the cool night breeze. Anyone else would have been cold but not Dean. He was raised in cold areas. Plus his almost impenetrable skin helps.

He walks over to 'The spot', its temporary name for now. "Speak to me" he said out loud and waited for something to happen. A couple of minutes pass by and still nothing. "How long will I have to wait to get some answers already?" still nothing.

Dean was about to leave when he heard the thunder god speak to him, "**_You handled yourself well in the Underworld._**"

"Ah yeah thanks for the major support you gave me. What happened to you? I thought you were supposed to guide me?"

"**_I am, and I did. As I said before, I will only interfere when necessary. I knew your wits wouldn't fail you._**"

"What was so special about swearing on the Styx?" Dean asked.

"**_The Styx is sacred. All those who would break their vows made to the Styx would be severely punished._**"

"Even a God?" Dean replied.

"**_Anyone_**" the God answered sternly.

"Ok I can see how that helped me now." Dean could only imagine the terrible things the Furies must do to those who break such serious vows. After all the Furies were the ones to carry out the sentences. Although it wouldn't surprise Dean if the Gods were let off easy because they were immortal.

"So would you care to explain how I made this all happen?" Dean asked referring to the mysterious revealing of his new ability.

"**_No_**" the God replied.

"No? What do you mean no?"

"**_That is something you must find out yourself_**"

Dean decides to drop it and move on to something else before his time runs out or something, whatever the deal is with Zeus and his brief visits.

"I know there's something special about this" he raises the weapon he found, "what is it?"

"**_The sword is Celestial Bronze_**"

"What bronze?" Dean said in confusion.

"**_Celestial Bronze. Forged by the Cyclopes', tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, and cooled in the river Lethe. It's deadly to monsters and to any creature from the Underworld. But the blade will pass through mortals like an illusion. And I should warn you, as a demigod, you can be killed by either Celestial or normal weapons. But since you have the gift of Achilles, you don't have to worry as much._**"

"Ok, just one thing though. What was that about monsters? I thought they were all dead?"

"**_It is more complicated than that_**"

"Try me"

"**_Monsters can be killed but they don't have souls like mortals. Eventually over time they will re-form._**"

"So how come nobody has noticed these 'monsters' lurking around?"

"**_The Mist is a powerful thing_**"

"Mist?"

"**_Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world, they generate Mist, which obscures the vision of humans. You would have noticed some things but you were unaware of this world that is why you couldn't see any before. But now you will see things just as they are, being a demigod, but humans will interpret things differently._**"

"Ok well with that I am going to bed; I've had enough of this stuff for one day."

"**_This is only the beginning…._**" He said being absolutely vague.

"Don't remind me" Dean said rubbing the back of his head. This is going to be one long annoying journey.

* * *

From a distance someone also had trouble sleeping and had been watching Dean. Rogue. "What is he doing?" Rogue asks out loud.

Kitty stirs in her sleep. 'Damn it, I have to be quieter.' She doesn't want to wake her roommate.

Rogue looks back at Dean, 'He looks like he's talking to someone. But there's no one around? I should take a closer look.' If Rogue were to go out the front door someone was bound to hear her, she decided to go for a more direct approach. She puts on her gloves and opens the window a little more so she can fit through it and climbs out.

She looks down and realizes it's a long way down if she accidentally falls. It should be at least a 10 foot drop. That would be bad. Before she could change her mind she slips and falls, "Aaaahhh" is all she managed to say.

* * *

As Dean starts walking away he notices someone climbing out their window. He gets closer and notices its Rogue, 'What is she doing now?' he thought to himself. Dean then decides to go ask what's wrong and comes right below her when all of a sudden she slips and falls. Dean acts quickly and catches her, Rogue lands softly into his arms shaking out of fear.

"Um, Rogue? You ok?" Dean asked out loud.

She opens her eyes, "Um yeah I'm ok."

Dean puts her down, "So what exactly were you doing climbing out of your window this time of night?" he asked.

She doesn't wanna give away her curiosity for him but she has no excuse, "Um well…well what are you doing?" she asks back hoping to keep the topic off herself.

"I couldn't sleep so I came outside for some fresh air, what's your excuse?"

"I….." she doesn't want to lie but she has to give at least some truth, "I thought a heard ya talking to someone. That's why a climbed out of ma window to see if ah was right, am I?"

'Gotta keep these visits more discreet for now on', "Well you tell me, do you see anybody else out here but us two?" he asked.

"Well…..no but-"

"Alright then, now let's get back inside before anyone else notices we're gone." He said trying to drop the conversation about him.

'He's definitely hiding something, but I'll let it go…..for now' she thought. She looks up at her open window and realizes she's gonna have to climb back up the way she came out. "Darn, I'm gonna have to climb back up to ma window." She sighs.

Dean stops in his tracks and takes a good look at how high up her window is, 'It's not that high, I can make the jump.' "I can help you if you want" he offers.

"How?" she asked.

"Well I lift you and I jump up to the window, that simple"

"You can do that?" she asked honestly.

"Well unless you weigh like 900 pounds which I very much doubt."

It definitely beats climbing up, but it would suck if they fell on their asses by accident. He hasn't exactly been wrong when it comes to his own abilities, so why not? "Alright fine, just make sure you don't drop me or accidentally touch my skin, got it?"

"Got it" he goes up to her and puts his right arm around her waist making sure only to touch her shirt. She puts her hands round his neck making sure she doesn't make skin contact.

"You ready?" he asked.

"Yup" she replied.

"Alright, hold on tight." He jumps off into the air and safely grasps the edge of the windowsill with his left hand keeping them there; he then lifts Rogue into her room. "Goodnight Rogue" he drops from the window.

She immediately looks out her window and watches him land softly on the grassy ground like nothing happened. She pushes her hair behind her ear and whispers, "Goodnight."

* * *

The next day after school the X-men gather in the Professors study to 'discuss' yesterday's events.

"Now before you start Dean I would like to inform you of how this all happened." The Professor said.

"What do you mean? You can explain?" Dean asked.

"Well yes. You remember yesterday when we took another blood sample from you right?" he asked.

"Yeah why?" Dean asked.

"I compared it to the sample we took when you first arrived and I've discovered that there's one major difference. Your x-gene has been activated."

Dean realizes what happened. "So when I created the portal…..that was my 'mutant' ability? Not something else?"

"Yes, I believe so. Now can you please explain to us exactly where the portal took you"

'This is going to be hard to explain' he looks around and everyone is waiting for his explanation. "There's no easy way to say this so I'm just gonna lay it out…we went to the underworld….to the realm of Hades."

All the adults widen their eyes and simply stare at Dean hoping that was a joke, it was not. They were simply speechless, absolutely nothing to say.

"Well I kind of expected that response" Dean said.

"This is most concerning indeed" the Professor finally breaks the ice, "Please elaborate on what happened exactly."

"If you insist" Dean said.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

_Train till You Drop_

It was Tuesday and it was already a very weird day so far. Just moments before Dean had explained to the Professor what had transpired in his little trip to the underworld. Nobody had ever seen the Professor so stunned...no really I'm serious; I think a fly went in his mouth at some point.

Right now most of the X-men were probably in their rooms still trying to get over what they saw yesterday. That was weird and freaky among other things

Meanwhile Dean is testing the new gravity upgrade, and someone else is outside. Kurt is outside sitting alone.

Out of everyone who went to the underworld and saw its horrors, Kurt  
was the most affected. It's not every day you find out one of your parents is a demon. If Kurt could ask God one question it would be, "Why me?" After what he's been through with his appearance now he has to deal with this? Why can't he just be a normal teenage boy that worries about acne and girls?

And that's only half his problem, the other question is what sane person would fall in love with a Demon? Yet alone have a child with them.

A wild black cat walks up to Kurt and meows at him. "I suppose you don't have parent problems?" Kurt said to the cat.

The cat meows and tilts its head sideways in confusion. "No I guess not. Why would a cat have a Demon for a parent?" Kurt said out loud. The cat meows and walks away. "Yeah, I wouldn't want to be around me either." Kurt said in despair.

Outside the walls of the institute the wild cat morphs into a sad looking Mystique. 'How could he possibly know?' Mystique thought to herself. 'The only people who know of Azazel are I and Magnus. And he would not bother with such matters. Perhaps he's just assuming, yes that must be it.' Mystique looks back at Kurt and can clearly see the despair on his face.

It hurts her to see her child in this position, she wishes she could embrace her son and make his pain go away but she can't. Kurt can never know that his mother is Mystique, it would crush him. Perhaps in time he may know the truth, but for now he must remain alone.

**In the Danger Room**

Standing in the observation room are the Professor, Logan, and Forge. Inside the Danger room, Dean is standing in full gear ready to test the newly made gravity simulation. Luckily his X-man outfit is light so he has nothing to worry about.

"Now are you sure you want to do this?" Forge asked.

"I'm positive" Dean replied.

"Things might get ugly kid" Logan added.

"We'll never know until we try, now let's fire this baby up." Dean said stretching out.

"Ok, the machine's maximum right now is 10x so I'll start out with 2x Earth's gravity." Forge said

"Nonsense, crank it up to 10x" Dean replied.

Forge's eyes widen, "Are you insane! You'll weigh 3000 pounds!"

"Put it to 5x, I'm sure that'll be plenty of a challenge" Logan said.

"Fine, now let's do this." Dean said

"Ok, adjusting gravity in 3...2...1" Forge activated it.

There was a rumble inside the Danger room but besides that Dean didn't feel any different. All of a sudden Dean felt like an elephant had jumped on his back. He had trouble standing, his limbs felt like they were each holding a ton and that's not even counting his torso.

The sign of struggle was obvious on Dean's face but he still had plenty of fight left in him. He puts all of his energy into his legs and back, and after a good solid minute of struggling he stood upright. This was definitely the most he ever sweated, there small puddles all over his feet. Dean tries to move his feet but it seems as if they made roots into the ground.

In the observation room Logan can see at this rate Dean might pass out from exhaustion. "Shut it off" Logan told Forge.

Forge turns the gravity back to normal. The second the gravity returned to normal Dean collapsed to the floor panting.

Logan makes his way down to the Danger room and stops right in front of Dean to get a better look at him. "Now let me guess. This gravity simulation is by far the most painful thing you've ever done. But since it's so challenging, you're gonna wanna do it every day of the week right?" Logan asked.

Dean looked up at Logan and gave him a thumb up before going back to panting.

"Yup, that's what I thought." Logan lifts him up "Let's get you to the infirmary and see what the damage is."

* * *

Jean right now is lying on her bed wondering. 'Who should I pick?' Jean has been wondering this ever since she broke up with Duncan. Her two choices, Dean: the mysterious bad boy who's experienced and loves to live dangerously or Scott: her closest friend who has always been there for her and was supposed to be her next choice in case her and Duncan didn't work out. Both very appealing choices to Jean.

But which one? They're both so different. "I need some air" Jean thought out loud.

She makes her way outside and for some reason she hadn't noticed what a beautiful day it was before. Jean closes her eyes and feels the sun touch her skin; it almost feels like a summer sun. But no its still May, another month and summer will be here.

Jean picks up on some stray thoughts, she opens her eyes and finds Kurt sitting all alone looking miserable. Jean walks over to Kurt, "Hey Kurt, why the long face?" She asked.

Kurt sighs, "Jean can I ask you something?"

"Sure" she replied.

"Do I look like a Demon?" Kurt asked flat out.

That was the one question she was not prepared to answer. "Kurt, I can't answer that. If this is about what Charon said don't let it get to you."

"That's easy for you to say. I alvays knew I looked like one but now I have confirmation too." Kurt

"Kurt look, no matter who your parents are we'll still like you for who you are. Who or what your parents are don't define you, you do."

Kurt gets up, "I suppose you're right. But it still doesn't make me feel any better." Kurt teleports away with a BAMF leaving a trail of smoke in Jean's face.

Jean coughs and waves the smoke out of her face. 'He really needs to stop doing that' she thought.

**In the infirmary**

"Well it seems there is no permanent damage to your body" The Professor said to Dean scanning his body. "All I see is very strained muscle" the Professor removed the top.

Dean gets up feeling the burn of his sore muscles, "You can say that again. Its gonna take me a whole day to recover from this."

"No pain no gain kid" Logan slaps Dean's back.

Dean winces at the pain "Don't do that again."

Logan smiles. "Now on a side note, whenever you use the gravity simulation someone else should be there just in case something happens to you. You wouldn't want to be stuck in there with all that weight right?" Logan asked.

"If it'll keep you off my back fine, but for now I need some air" Dean gets up off the scanner and almost falls from the weight of his body.

Logan lifts him up, "whoa easy there, your still in bad shape."

Dean pushes him off, "Yeah well if I'm going to be feeling like this every time I do it I have to get used to my sore body." Dean stands on his own and slowly walks out.

The Professor looks at Logan, "well at least that will keep him busy for a while"

"Definitely for a while." Logan added.

* * *

Jean had just come back inside from her talk with Kurt, which literally went up in smoke. And as she comes in she sees Dean walk out of the subbasement elevator, but really slow.

"Are you ok?" Jean asked Dean.

"Oh yeah, just perfect." Dean said sounding pissed off. "I tried out the gravity simulator, and it seemed to give me the challenge I needed."

"Well it looks like you need some help walking" Jean motions to help Dean.

"No" Dean said sternly. "I can do this myself."

"Alright fine" Jean backs away and watches Dean slowly walk up the stair case.

'He can be stubborn, or proud, whichever way I decide to look at it. But he knows what he wants, and he's dedicated.'

Jean decides to go see what Scott is doing. She finds him in the garage working underneath his car. She taps him on the leg to get his attention, he comes out from underneath the car and at the sight of Jean he hits his head on the bottom of the car "Ouch"

Jean giggles at the sight of him.

Scott tries to get some attention off him; he goes back underneath the car, "So what do you need?"

"Oh nothing, I just wanted to see what you were doing." Jean replied with a smile.

"Well as you can see I'm pretty busy." Scott said.

Jean frowns, "Alright then, I'll see you later."

'He's sweet and honest, but sometimes he just can't take a hint' Jean thought. This is going to take some more thinking.

* * *

It was a miracle Dean even got himself in his room, yet alone dressed into sleeping clothes. I know what you're thinking, it's still early. Well if your body felt like a Titan squeezed the life out of you I bet you would wanna sleep all day.

Right now, Dean is lying on his bed exhausted from his workout. 'Finally some rest, I don't think I've ever felt this sore before.'

Dean was about to doze off when out of nowhere he hears 'Knock Knock'

"Yeah" Dean yells out.

"It's me" Dean hears Rogue's voice.

Dean sighs, 'I'm too tired for this right now, but I don't want to seem rude'. "Come in"

Rogue walks in and notices that Dean is ready for sleep. "You're going to sleep? Now?"

"Yes I am going to sleep in the middle of the day because I'm tired." He plants his face inside his pillow.

"Tired from what?" She asked.

Dean lifts his head up, "the new gravity simulator" he puts his head back on his pillow.

"Oh so it works right?"

"You can say that" Dean said inside his pillow.

Rogue takes a seat on Dean's bed and pokes him in the ribcage. Dean flinches, "don't do that it stings"

Rogue smiles deviantly and does it again.

"I'm warning you" Dean said.

Rogue does it again, "I swear to god I'm going to murder you when I feel better."

Rogue giggles, "Alright fine I'll go" she messes his hair a little and walks out.

"Finally some peace and quiet", it isn't very long before Dean falls asleep.

**At the Boarding house**

Phantazia dodged another fireball from Fever Pitch and replied with her Electromagnetic blast. Fever Pitch dodged by leaping to the right, then to the left, then right.

Phantazia had developed a bit of a trigger finger which she seems to be utilizing well. Unlike Fever pitch who needs a couple of seconds to form his fireball, Phantazia can instantly fire her EM blasts.

Fever pitch is backed into a corner; there is no time for him to dodge normally. Phantazia fires a two-handed beam at Fever pitch and right before it hits him he floats into the air. A little trick Magneto taught him.

Fever pitch starts flying around making it much easier to dodge.

Phantazia gets furious and starts rapid firing hoping to get him like that but to no avail. "No fair, I can't hit you when you're flying!" Phantazia complained.

"Too bad" Fever pitch replied.

"Alright then" Phantazia alters her own magnetic field and launches herself upward towards Fever pitch. Phantazia does have the ability to fly but she has yet to master it, for now she can just dash in short bursts.

Fever pitch moves out of the way and Phantazia falls to the ground face first.

She gets back up looking like she just mud wrestled someone. She was about to go back at it, "Enough!" Yelled Mystique. She was watching on the sidelines along with the rest of the brotherhood. Mystique had been testing and training her new recruits to find their weaknesses and to improve them. From what she could see Phantazia still has trouble with flying and has a bit of an anger problem. Fever pitch's skills are surprisingly good but he's lacking in team work.

"What are you doing I had him!" Yelled Phantazia.

"You didn't have anything" replied Mystique, "He was toying with you the whole time."

Fever pitch lands and powers down to his human form.

"If I could fly I could get him easily" Phantazia complained referring to Fever pitch.

"But you can't, and until you do you're going to practice. Now go Eileen."

She storms off and passes by the other Brotherhood members snickering. Eileen shoots a projectile in their direction and leaves. Everyone except Toad gets out of the way. It hits him head on and for some reason his tongue shoots out and doesn't retract.

"Whath the thuck yo!" Is all Toad can say. The rest of them start hysterically laughing at him.

* * *

Eileen is practicing her floating, so she isn't going very far. She's only about 3 feet in the air. The constant concentration she has to keep in order to keep herself from launching into space is very tiresome.

It's easier for Fever pitch to fly because all he has to do is focus heat underneath him and he shoots up. Also keep in mind that Fever Pitch spent more time with Magneto so the master of magnetism must have given him a few pointers concerning his powers.

Eileen drops to the ground. She just can't seem to focus today. She keeps on thinking about him, Dean. The hottest piece of ass she's seen so far in Bayville. There isn't really anybody else anyways. Her first choice would have been one of her teammates, Lance but it seems like he has a thing for that Kitty Pryde girl.

But having a guy on the opposite team is way more adventurous. Plus she hasn't been with a guy in weeks and she's getting eager. But he keeps on playing hard to get. Which is very rare for Eileen but it makes it even better. Although at some point she might just have to force it on him. "I'll have to see how this plays out" Eileen said with purple smoke coming out of her eyes.

* * *

Black smoke covered everything. There was nothing you could see. Then a dark figure came out of the Darkness, it took shape into a tall muscular form. It was Dean, but very different. He was wearing his custom fingerless gloves and boots. His gauntlets were on too, but instead of his regular X-man attire he wore black Gi pants and his ancestor's chest armor piece.

But it wasn't just his clothes that made him look different. His whole facial expression was just...evil. His evil smirk sent chills down your body. His eyes had a murderous stare that read 'I want to brutally murder you and eat the remains.' And to top it all off there was red lightning flashing in his eyes.

Then all of a sudden he pulls a silver slate out of his pocket and he holds it out. Then it starts growing in his hand until it takes the shape of a silver looking short sword. But then it continues to grow and take shape into a totally different weapon. It becomes a large, thick, long sword made of dark red steel. Spikes come out of the hilt and right where the blade comes out there's a red crystal that's covered which makes it almost look like an eye. Then his gauntlets do the same and become darker and grow spikes on the sides.

Dean lifts the dark red blade and holds it upright as if it was a feather when in reality it looks like it weighs a ton; he thrusts it forward going for the kill. It is right there than Dean wakes up from his early sleep.

'What is with these weird dreams? Must be all the things that have been going on lately.' Dean gets up from his bed and notices that the soreness is completely gone. He checks the time on his phone, 9:23 pm.

"Wow, a good 4 hour nap. Lets see if I can find someone to spot me." He goes through the house and everyone is either out or busy. He stumbles upon the library where he finds Rogue reading by herself, again.

'Ok now is it me or does she not like to go out for some reason? Either that or she barely has any friends. But why is it that a pretty girl like that doesn't have a pack of guys stalking her? Bayville is weird.'

Dean walks in; "Hey"

Rogue takes her eyes off her book and notices Dean. "Well look who finally woke up" she said.

"What? You never heard of a power nap?" he asked.

"No" she replied.

"Well now you do. So it seems to me that you're the only one who's not really doing anything." Dean pointed out.

"Ahm reading" she replied.

"Yes I can see that, reading is boring. How about you come with me and watch me work out?

Rogue raises an eyebrow, "Why would I want to do that? I like to work out by myself anyways." Rogue said.

"Ok I just realized that sounded wrong. Well it's not that 'you' want to do it, at least from what I know. It's that I want you to do it, specifically because I need someone to watch me when I use the gravity simulator just in case I pass out" Dean leaves out the fact that he collapsed before.

Rogue realizes what he's saying, "Oh, well if you need me then sure I'll do it."

"Awesome, now follow me" They make their way into the Danger room and Dean showed her how to operate the simulation.

"So I put it to 5x earth's gravity right?" Rogue asked.

"Yeah, and only shut it off if I pass out ok?" Dean replied

"Ok, I'm turning it on" she turns it on and there's a rumble inside the Danger room.

Dean prepares himself for the weight. When the weight hits him it feels slightly better than last time but still incredibly difficult. He stands up straight and slowly lifts his foot to take a step; his foot touches the floor CLACK. Then the other foot CLACK. He goes to lift his foot again but he starts to struggle, he loses his balance and drops to the floor. He tries to get up but the weight is too much.

Rogue sees the struggle on Dean's face and immediately shuts it off and runs inside the danger room. She helps him up and notices how heavy he is for the first time and that this is the first time she's ever seen him sweat.

He looks at her panting, "Go back...and turn it on"

"There's no way am turning that thing on again, your exhausted."

"I can still go-"

"Bullshit, now move your ass" Rogue said sternly.

Dean makes a sort of growl noise and then starts walking slowly.

'He spends too much time with Logan' she thought.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

_Shadowed Past_

All the X-men were preparing for bed; they all had to take their finals tomorrow before spring break started. But there is still one X-man that is not ready.

"Ya I know, thanks for lending it to me."Rogue said talking over the phone.

She's been talking over the phone for like half an hour and its driving Kitty crazy, why does she have to be her roommate anyways? 'Who is she talking to anyway?' Kitty thought, 'And why is it taking so long?'

"I thought it was great. Especially the end when he turned into a werewolf and nobody knew it."

'Aren't the X-men like her only friends? Since when does she have friends from school?'

"Well I gotta go; I've got three finals tomorrow. Talk to ya later, bye." Rogue hangs up the phone.

'Finally some peace!' Kitty thought to herself as she sat in her bed.

Rogue closes the lamp on her dresser and covers herself with her sheets.

* * *

A few hours later Rogue stirs in her sleep. It's that dream again. The wolves are howling on a cold snowy night in the woods. The scene changes to the dark castle that lies in the heart of the woods. High up in one of the towers green electricity is sparking everywhere, "Monster! What are you trying to do to him?!" A voice shouts.

A person starts to run through the dark castle, a woman in a cloak with a crying baby in her arms. The gates to the castle open and out comes running the cloaked woman, behind her a dark figure comes floating out right behind her "Come back at once!" the dark figure shouted.

The cloaked woman runs through the woods trying to outrun her chaser but hears the howling wolves on her tail. She has to hurry before they catch her.

The woman comes to an old bridge and takes a chance by trying to cross it with the wolves' right behind her. The wolves surround her before she can get far, and right behind them the dark figure, their master, lands on the ground behind them.

The wolves bark and try to snatch the crying baby out of the woman's hands but the cloaked woman won't give it up without a fight. Eventually the woman is pushed to the edge and in an attempt to protect her child when a wolf jumped for the crying baby she dropped it into the river. "Noooooo!" the cloaked woman yells. As soon as the baby hits the water Rogue wakes up from her nightmare screaming.

* * *

Dean was finally enjoying some sleep where he didn't have a strange vision, and he was loving it. Too bad it wasn't going to last very long. The sound of screaming immediately wakes Dean up, he recognizes the voice, Rogue. Within seconds he runs to Rogue's room and bursts in almost breaking the door by accident.

"What's going on?" he said looking around. He notices Rogue clutching her head and Kitty trying to comfort her.

"Rogue are you ok?" he asked with sympathy.

Scott walks in with Jean, "Rogue are you alright? What happened?" he asked.

"I—I don't know." She replied sounding scared, "I was dreamin….some kind of awful nightmare….with these…these images. It's horrible."

"Yeah. Her shrieking totally freaked me out. I just about phased through the bed." Kitty said.

"Whoa. Finals must be really getting to you." Scott said.

'Are you fucking kidding me? Finals? Really Scott' Dean thought to himself.

"No. It's not the first time. I've had this dream before. They started when I moved to the institute." Rogue pleaded.

Evan and Kurt walk in, "Unh!" Evan said yawning, "What's going on man? Are you guys ok?" he asked.

"Rogue's having creepy nightmares" Kitty quickly informs them.

"Whoa. What about?" Kurt asked.

"I'm not sure. There's, uh….a castle and wolves. Oh the poor baby" Rogue said crying. "I didn't really see his face, but I seem to know—to know him somehow." Rogue said looking at Kurt.

Kurt notices that she's staring at him, "What? Why are you looking at me like that? What's wrong?"

"It was you" Rogue points at Kurt.

"What was me?" Kurt asked getting confused.

"Somehow—I just know. It _was_ you, Kurt!" Rogue said.

"What are you talking about?" Kurt asked totally oblivious to what she's saying.

"In the dream…there was a baby crying. Cry—someone—a woman, I think, I didn't really see her face, was running, and she—the baby was dropped into the river." She said.

"And you think that baby was me?" he asked.

"Why am I having this dream?!" Rogue protests.

"Maybe the Professor can help us sort this out. But let's do it in the morning. It's pretty late." Jean said.

'That's all right, Jean. This is important.' The professor spoke telepathically to everyone. 'Rogue and Kurt, please come to the library with Jean. And the rest of you, try and get some sleep. In case you've forgotten, you all have finals tomorrow.'

"Man, there's no keeping anything from that dude is there?" Evan said.

Everyone starts to walk out of Rogue's room and Dean is standing there without a clue of what just happened. "Hey what's going on? Why is everybody leaving without saying a word?" Dean asked.

"The Professor said for all of us to go back to bed except for Kurt, Jean and Rogue." Kitty said.

"There's no way I'm going back to sleep now that wide awake." Dean said.

"I'm not going back to sleep either man, I got some more studying to do for tomorrow." Evan said.

"Great, you should come and spot me while I use the gravity simulator." Dean said enthusiastically.

* * *

"I've always known that my parents adopted me, but they never said anything about me being fished out of a river." Kurt said.

"Don't worry Kurt, we'll try to sort this out." Said the Professor, "Rogue, since this was your dream, I think I should start with you. Would you mind sitting here, please?" he said pointing to the chair next to him.

She sits on the chair and the professor roles in front of her. "Now, just relax. Try to think of the dream." He said placing his hands by her temples.

"You sure this isn't gonna hurt?" Rogue asked feeling nervous.

"Yes" he replied. "Now, please, just concentrate." They both close their eyes.

Rogue concentrates on the dream and starts from the beginning. The lab, "Monster! What are you trying to do to him?!" the cloaked woman runs out of the castle with a crying baby in her arms. The dark figure and his pet wolves pursue her, they corner her on a bridge and make her accidentally drop her baby into the river below. "Noooooo!" the cloaked woman yells.

The woman tries to catch her baby but fails, in the process her face is shown revealing that the cloaked woman is in fact Mystique.

Mystique falls to her knees and starts crying. The Dark figure comes closer and shows himself to be a man in Dark red armor, "Why?!" Mystique yells. "Why?" she asks the man looking into his eyes. The man in the Dark red armor says nothing and simply floats away.

The scene changes into a bright sunny day where a man and a woman find a crying baby in the river. The man picks the baby out of the river and the little toddler raises his blue hand out of its blanket. Watching from afar Mystique makes sure her little boy is safe. The dream ends.

Both the Professor and Rogue open their eyes simultaneously and simply stare at each other in silence.

"Well, did you see anything else?" Kurt asked.

"Apparently, Rogue, your dream isn't a dream. It's a repressed memory, not just your imagination." The Professor states.

"But if I'm in it, then why is _she_ having the dream? Shouldn't it have been mine?" Kurt asked.

"Yeah, Professor, what's going on?" Rogue asked.

"Well, I'm not quite certain. You must've absorbed the memories of someone who, indeed, knows about Kurt's past." The Professor said.

"She touched me!" Kurt said, "Back when we first met, remember, Rogue? Maybe you got those memories from me." Kurt suggested.

"You were just an infant in the dream. It is possible that you could have memories that far back." The Professor figured.

"Probe my mind now, Professor! To find out more! Maybe I've got more memories about what happened later." Kurt said.

"Yes that might help, but— but not tonight. We've had quite enough excitement, I think, for now." The Professor said.

"But, Professor!" Kurt complained.

"Tomorrow, Kurt, after school. I promise" he said rolling away.

Kurt sighs.

* * *

Dean right now is using the gravity simulation and has been walking around, slowly of course, for a good minute or so. Every time he uses it to his absolute limit he improves, slightly. Well this is a slow process, but in the end the results will probably be worth it.

He takes a couple more steps and he feels his energy depleting. He comes to a stop and stands up straight. 'Alright, I don't wanna wake up feeling like crap so I think this'll do for tonight.' "Ok Evan you can turn it off now" Dean said loudly.

Sadly though, Evan fell asleep while studying in the observation room.

"Evan?" he repeats. No answer. "EVAN!" he yells out. 'Aw great, now I have to walk all the way to the door.' He tries to will his legs to move but they're spent and in the process of lifting his leg he falls to the ground and lays there. 'Fucking great….' I mean someone will eventually get him out of this, right?

5 minutes later Dean is still laying there and suddenly he feels the gravity return to normal. The door opens and out comes Jean, still in her nightgown, with her arms folded over her chest and a smirk on her face.

'Great, just what I needed, a lecture.'

"What…happened?" Dean said panting.

"Evan fell asleep so I sent him to his room." Jean said.

She walks up to him, "So, do you need help now?" she asked.

"….no…" Dean replied.

"Yeah ok, sure you don't" She telekinetically lifts him off the ground and moves him as she walks away.

They finally reach his room and she places him on his bed. "What? You're not gonna dress me?" Dean joked.

Jean laughs, "That would be inappropriate"

"Oh I won't mind"

"Then maybe I'll send Kitty to help you" Jean said.

"Don't you dare! That little girl is crazy"

"Alright, goodnight"

"Goodnight."

**The next day at Bayville high**

The Professor has gone to see Mystique to question her about Rogue's dream. "You've been carrying a heavy burden for many years, Mystique." The Professor said. "Rogue's recent contact with you seems to have given her some of your darker memories—nightmares about a very unfortunate incident involving an infant."

"You're fishing. You know nothing" Mystique said.

"I know about your relationship with the boy, Mystique. What I don't know is what Magneto tried to do to him. Why did you run that night?" he asked.

Mystique gets out of her chair, "Dear, dear, Charles, how incredibly frustrating for you to realize that that amazing mind of yours knows so very little, really." She grabs a book from the shelf.

"What were you two up to in that dreary castle?" he asked, "Was it worth the loss of your son?" the Professor said hoping to get a mind reaction out of Mystique.

Mystique's mind wanders to that day. The dark castle in Sausenburg, "Monster?!" The howling wolves chasing her through the black forest. Dropping her boy in the Danube River "No!" Mystique drops the book she was holding. "Get out! Get out now!" she yelled.

The Professor turns around and rolls away. He stops by the doorway, "Oh, and just in case you're curious. He turned out to be a very fine lad." He exits.

Mystique leans on her desk and sighs. She really wishes she could see her little boy but she can't.

* * *

The Professor exits the school. He telepathically communicates with Logan, 'Logan, I've got the coordinates.'

**The X-jet**

"Fire away" Logan said engaging thrusters and blasting off.

**Bayville high**

Dean walks through the hallways finally done for the day wondering. 'Who do I pick?' the question that has been haunting him for a few days now. His "list" of girls he wants to date here in Bayville has come down to two candidates, Jean and Rogue.

Both very interesting candidates, each one of them is unique in certain ways. First off we have Jean- the popular high school girl. She's beautiful, smart, funny, confident, and talented in different ways including her powers. She's the first girl X-man he met so naturally he likes her and personally knows her better than he does everyone else, for now. She was nice to him from the beginning and she played a big part in bringing him to Bayville.

Now on the other hand we have Rogue-the sort of high school Goth girl. She's also beautiful, smart, and fun to hang out with, at times she can be tough but that's a turn on for Dean. A lot of times from what he heard Rogue would distance herself and hide her feelings from everyone, apparently Dean brings out the best in her. Over the weeks he's been at the institute, Dean has spent a lot of time with Rogue and likes her company. She enjoys his humor and rebellious side and vice versa. Whereas Jean is a strict by the book type of gal, something Dean definitely is not.

Dean originally thought Rogue would be like any other unpopular girl in his previous school, kind of just sad and miserable, hating every aspect of life. But surprisingly he ended up seeing something beyond just her outside appearance, which by the way without all the covering up is a very hot body. He saw potential, you could say. Rogue has what it takes to be just like Jean. It's just that she's lacking in certain fields, like for one-her powers. They really prevent her from having any contact with anyone, which is being fairly considered here. And due to her weird powers she seems to have low self-esteem and simply doesn't believe in herself. Dean has his own theory about her powers but that's not the point, if he did choose her he had a plan to turn her into a whole new Rogue…..given that she wants to that is, she doesn't have to. It's just something that would really help her mentally.

If it's one thing Dean has had a lot of besides fights, its girlfriends. So far they've all ended in the same way, Dean brakes up with the girl. He was never really into the "relationship" thing when he was younger anyways; it was all about having fun and experimenting. It's only recently he gave up having fun to look for a real girlfriend. And once Jean showed up with the X-men he might have subconsciously made up his mind without actually thinking on it. But in the mist of all this he constantly dismisses Jean's longer relationship with Scott. He underestimates Scott's chances with Jean seeing him as a boring dork but doesn't know their history.

Right now, it seems that the only muscle Dean has yet to figure out is his own heart. The answer is clear but Dean refuses to see it.

He drops out of his thoughts and notices Jean, 'I guess I'll go with Jean' and then he notices Scott not too far behind. 'If Scott stops stalking her!'

* * *

Kurt was staring out the window wondering what answers await him when he gets back to the institute. Will he finally be free of this rumor of him being a hell spawn? Will he finally find out who his mother really is? All this suspense has him waiting anxiously for the bell to ring.

When the bell does ring he is the first one out of his seat and hands in his final exam. He walks out of his classroom in a fast pace, "Hey, Kurt, wait up!" he hears from behind him. He looks back and sees Rogue trying to catch up with him.

"What's the rush?" Rogue asked.

"You know." He said continuing on walking with her, "Prof said we'd look for more answers after school." Kurt replied.

"Right." Rogue said thinking about her dream. "You sure you wanna know?" she asked.

They come to a stop in front of his locker, he opens it and gets the rest of his things, "What?" he asked, "Of course! Hey wouldn't you? I mean haven't you ever wondered who your real parents were?"

"I guess so. Yeah, sometimes, but Irene was always a good mom to me. I mean, sometimes she could be real strict and all, but…"

He closes his locker and they continue walking, "My adopted parents were great, too, but I always felt that they were keeping something from me. Whenever the subject of where I came from popped up, they were always vague. They never mentioned anything like the stuff in your dream."

"Maybe they didn't know." Kurt raises an eyebrow to that, "Or maybe they were just trying to protect you." Kurt comes to a stop.

"How, by hiding my own past from me?" his tone sounding slightly angry.

Dean, Jean and Scott notice the commotion and walk over to them.

"Kurt—"

"Listen, maybe you can live without knowing, but I've got to know the truth about my life!" he switches off his image inducer revealing his blue form, "I'm outta here!" he teleports leaving a trail of smoke behind, luckily no one was around to see that.

"What's wrong with Kurt?" Dean asked.

"He's still really worked up about last night." Rogue said.

"Ah, well, we'd better go find him." Scott said.

"Scott, I think Kurt went back home." Dean said.

"Well how do you know?" Scott asked, the tension between the two of them becoming obvious.

"He wanted to find answers and there's really only one person who can give them to him, the Professor. It's kind of a no-brainer." Dean said intentionally trying to mock him.

"What if he wanted to be alone for a while?" Scott retorted.

"Where do you think he would go? The ice-cream shop? If he wanted to be alone and cool off he'd go back to his room." Dean said raising his voice slightly.

They both fall into a serious deep stare.

"Fine. Let's go home and see" Scott said walking away.

"Alright then." Dean said also walking away.

"Oh I'll ride with Dean" Jean said catching up with him.

That pisses off Scott further and he storms out mad.

"Hey wait for me!" Rogue yelled.

As they all walk out a student is behind the corner listening. The student morphs into a very sad looking Mystique.

* * *

Mystique hands Quicksilver an envelope.

"Are you sure about this? I mean, I've seen the defenses they've got around that place." Pietro said.

"Don't worry. You're fast enough. You should be able to get in and out of there undetected." Mystique said.

"Why is it so important? I mean, what are you telling that blue-furred freak?" Pietro asked.

Mystique hides her anger for the safety of her cover, "Never mind. That's none of your business. Just deliver it!"

Pietro speeds up and vanishes into thin air.

* * *

The Professor is in the war room in communication with Wolverine. "Looks like this is the place, Charles. I'll set her down in the woods nearby and go in on foot." The Professor hears from the com link.

"Good. Keep me informed." The Professor said.

"Right. Logan out."

Pietro jumps over the Mansion gate in super speed.

The Professor feels an unknown presence, he searches with his mind.

Pietro runs across the front lawn and into the mansion.

'Quicksilver' The Professor thought.

Pietro zips through the living room passing by Kitty, Evan and Storm appearing as nothing but a gust of wind. "Hey, who opened a window?" Kitty said.

* * *

Kurt stares at an old photo of him as a child with his adopted parents. He wonders, 'Why did they ever keep these things from me? I deserved to know. But what if Rogue is right, and I don't like what I find?'

There's a knock on his door that interrupt his thoughts. He drops from the ceiling and teleports upside down midair. He deports outside his door to find no one there.

'Hmm, how strange.' He teleports back into his room only to find an envelope on the floor. He picks it up, opens it and reads it.

_If you want to know the truth, come to the new mall construction site at sundown. Come alone!_

He walks over to his desk and places it in the top drawer. He thinks about it. 'This could be a trap, but what if this is for real? I need to find out once and for all. I mean if anything does happen I can just port out of there right?'

He looks out his window and notices sundown is a few minutes away. "Why not?" he says out loud before teleporting out of there.

Just then there is a knock on his door. "Yo Kurt! Prof said he might have some info-" Dean said opening his door. He looked around but Kurt was nowhere to be seen.

"I could've sworn I heard him." Dean said. He sniffs the air and smells fresh sulphur, very recent. 'Must've just missed him.' He thought to himself. 'I should tell the Professor'

* * *

"That's what the note said, I'm tellin ya. She's gonna meet that little blue creep tonight. And that Wolverine guy and the _blackbird_ were gone just like you said." Pietro said over the phone.

Magneto's voice can be heard from the other side, "Hmm, as I feared. Good work, Pietro."

* * *

Magneto is standing in front of a few screens, one in particular fixed on the blackbird, "Now I need you to do something further for me. Get the others and intercept Nightcrawler _before_ he gets to Mystique. She must not tell him what he wants to know."

"I have to take care of a visitor." The screen zooms in on Wolverine.

* * *

Logan jumps down the hill he landed the Blackbird on. He makes his way through the forest and reaches the base of the mountain which holds the Sausenburg castle. He climbs it and eventually reaches the top to find the gates wide open, as if they were expecting someone.

He sniffs the air, nobody close by. He runs in and hides behind a column. He peeks his head out to see if anyone is by the stairs, nobody there. He runs up.

He reaches the top of the staircase and rushes in the next room only to be stopped by an electrical field. He unsheathes his claws and slashes the fuse box on the right column disarming the electrical field.

He walks away smoking, limping and holding his right arm from the shock. Within mere seconds he's back to normal.

He continues forward and turrets come out of two columns ahead. They start to glow red, 'Uh-oh' he thought.

They start to shoot red laser beams at him. He side steps to the left, then jumps to the right. He continues zigzagging from side to side until he gets close enough where he leaps forward, jumps off a column and slashes one of the turrets midair.

They dislocated turret flies into the other one destroying both.

He hides behind a column again and scouts the area ahead. He spots a big, closed wooden door. 'Seems like a good place to start' he thought.

He sprints at the door full-speed and drop kicks the door opening it. He lands inside and finds everything trashed like one of his fights with Creed.

He walks around, he sheaths his claws. "Wolverine report" Logan hears through the com link.

"Looks like I was expected. I think this place was some sort of…." He sniffs the air, "DNA lab or somethin, but whoever was running it pulled out recently. _Real_ recently."

He suddenly hears a beeping sound, "Huh?" he finds the source and it looks like a device counting down from 10. "Sorry, Chuck, I gotta sign off now!" he immediately jumps out the window with no time to spare as the whole castle explodes and to crumbles to the ground.

* * *

"Jean!" Dean said spotting her in the hallway. "Kurt's taken off. The Professor wants us to check out his room.

"Ok" she said. She follows him to Kurt's room. "So what are we looking for?" she asked.

"Tell you the truth, I'm not sure." He answered. "The Professor thinks that Kurt might have had a visit from Pietro earlier."

"Quicksilver?" she said full of concern. "Here? But how?"

"Well he does have super speed so he probably got past the mansion security with no problem."

Jean opens Kurt's top drawer, finds the note and reads it. "Oh no. Dean Look at this" she gives him the note and he reads it. "Get the others, we gotta move."


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

_Shadowed Past: Part 2_

**At the New Mall construction site**

Kurt lands on the soft ground in his X-man uniform. He looks around but no one is to be seen or heard. "Ok…so I'm here." He said out loud.

He walks around a little to see if he can spot someone.

"Hello, Kurt" He hears from behind him.

"Huh?" he turns around and spots a cloaked woman that matches Rogue's description. His eyes widen with the sudden realization, "You! You're the one in Rogue's dream!" he said.

He walks closer to her, "Who are you? Why don't you show yourself?" he demanded.

"You already know me…" she takes her hood off and Mystique reveals her face, "Son."

Kurt is shocked, "No! No, it's impossible!" he yelled.

Mystique's face saddens at her son's reaction, she feared this would happen.

Kurt puts his feelings aside for the moment. "Tell me is my father a demon? Answer me!"

Mystique gasps, "How do you know about Azazel?"

Kurt freezes, 'So it is true, I am a hell spawn.'

All of a sudden Blob drops right in between them.

"What are you doing?! Get out of here!" Mystique commands him putting her hand on his shoulder.

Blob simply shakes it off. Toad then lands behind Kurt, Avalanche walks in to his right, and Quicksilver speeds up to his left and in the background Phantazia and Fever Pitch come out of the air.

"Whoa. That's as far as you go, fur boy. This conversation's over." Pietro said leaning on Blob.

"Get out of here, all of you!" Mystique yells.

"No can do, boss lady." Pietro said, "We got higher orders." Pietro snaps his fingers and Toad shoots his tongue out at Kurt.

Kurt teleports away at the last second and appears on a hook chain.

Toad spots him, "I got him." He leaps for Kurt but again Kurt teleports away at the last second. Toad gets caught on the hook and starts swinging, "Whoa!"

Kurt appears on a metal railing from the skeleton of the building, "What kind of game is this, Mystique? He said to her not paying attention.

Mystique goes to speak when Toad accidentally knocks into Kurt knocking him over and landing in a pile of dirt softening his fall but still knocking him out.

The Brotherhood look over Kurt's unconscious body to make sure he's out. "Ha! That was easy." Pietro said.

"Wrong!" they hear from behind them. They look back and spot the rest of the X-men, "It just got hard!" said Scott.

Jean immediately moves Kurt out of the line of fire so he doesn't get hurt accidentally.

Fever Pitch lands and power's down, revealing his costume. The majority of it was black, and it covered most of his body, excluding his head and arms. Whatever wasn't black was flames. The flames were around his boots, waist, back, and shoulders. His chest had a skull design that was made out of flames, and everything about the suit seemed to complement his abilities.

Both teams line up against each other. "A six on six huh? This is gonna be fun." Lance said.

"My thoughts exactly" Dean said cracking his knuckles.

"Alright guys pick someone and stick to them." Scott said.

Blob moved in front of Dean, "Let's finish what we started last time." He said.

"Fine with me, _Blob_." He replied getting into his fighting stance.

Eileen and Dean see each other in uniform for the first time when they make eye contact.

She was wearing purple leather boots, gloves, short shorts, and low cut top (which showed off her lean body) that were outlined with white. 'Wow' Dean Thought to himself, 'that looks…No! Not right now, I can't lose focus.' Dean shakes off his thoughts of Eileen and focuses on the task at hand.

Eileen couldn't believe her eyes. Dean, in a tight black outfit that showed off every muscle on his body, and the vest that's only half zipped up. She can't wait any longer, this happens now.

"X-men take em down!" Scott ordered.

Immediately Phantazia blasts off the ground, "Pretty boy's mine!" she collided with Dean and took him for a joyride through the air, "Whoa!" Dean yelped.

Fever Pitch powers up to his fiery skeletal form, takes to the air and Cyclops goes after him trying to blast him.

Avalanche sends a seismic tremor at the x-men keeping them unbalanced. While they're distracted Toad leaps on Rogue and she topples over.

Spyke shoots some spikes at Avalanche stopping him momentarily from doing anything since he has to dodge and tries to keep him away from the others.

Blob rushes at Marvel Girl, his previous crush, and is surprised when he finds himself floating in the air without a way to get down. "Hey put me down!"

'I have to go help Dean, he's in trouble. Hopefully I can take out Blob quickly.' She throws him into a metal bar from the skeleton of the building head first with all her might. Blob's head hitting the bar made a noise, DONG! He drops to the floor.

'That should take care of him for a little bit.' Marvel Girl thought to herself.

Quicksilver doesn't mind leftovers, especially when they're weak ones. He speeds over to Shadowcat.

* * *

Phantazia and Achilles land on the ground with a purple flash, Achilles on the bottom taking all the damage of the fall, creating a small hole.

Achilles tries to get up but realizes that he's lost almost all feeling to his body. "What…have you…done to me…..can't…..move." He managed to say.

She puts her finger over his lips, "Shhhhhh, don't talk. I hit you with a full power blast, normally that would have probably put someone to sleep but it seems like you're tougher than I thought. So were gonna play a little." She said her lips curling up into a wicked sinful grin. She kisses him on the lips deeply. Her tongue meets his, her hands running through his soft black hair.

He doesn't resist the kiss, for what can he do in a situation like this. I mean it's doubtful that Dean would have further resisted if she kissed him, but right now all he can do is enjoy the moment.

Their lips separate, "Even when you can barely move you kiss like your life depends on it, I'm so going to love this."

* * *

Cyclops fires an optic beam at Fever Pitch but misses. Fever Pitch replies with his own fire ball but Cyclops leaps out of the way. This projectile exchange has been going on for a few minutes with no clear winner. The only difference is that Fever Pitch has an easier time dodging than Cyclops because he can freely move through the air.

'There has to be a way I can blast him out of the air, but how?' Cyclops thought to himself.

Cyclops shoots two optic blasts really fast and Fever Pitch dodges them using evasive maneuvers leaving a small trail of fire behind him.

Cyclops notices that when he sped up his movement there was a bigger trail of fire behind him.

"Hmmmm…trail of fire….I got it!' a mental light bulb went on in his head.

* * *

Spike shot a couple of spikes towards Avalanche but he leaped out of the way.

Spyke keeps him on his toes by shooting spikes at him, while making sure that he doesn't accidentally hit any vital organs.

One spike grazes Avalanche's side cutting him open by his ribcage. He touches the wound and feels the sting of his touch. He looks at his hand and spots the red blood dripping from his hands. He curls up his fingers into a fist and squeezes hard. "I've had enough of this defensive shit! Now it's my turn!"

To Spyke's surprise, Avalanche vibrates the earth beneath his feet letting him move over the ground with great speed, surfing the ground as if it was a wave.

Avalanche quickly closes the gap between the two of them and clotheline's Spyke flooring him.

As Avalanche turns back around he sends a seismic wave towards Spyke. The wave shape in the ground could be clearly seen. Sadly Spyke saw it a second too late as he was trying to get back up. It hits him head on sending him backwards head over heels.

Avalanche creates a small quake around one of the bulldozers and makes it topple over towards Spyke.

Spyke quickly reacts by backing up avoiding being flattened by mere inches. He tries to keep the pressure on Avalanche by shooting more spikes at him but Avalanche creates a quake by his feet making him lose his balance and miss.

Spyke tries again with the same result.

This time Avalanche creates a seismic tremor keeping Spyke off balance and creating a fissure behind him without Spyke noticing. Avalanche then quickly ground surfs his way to Spyke and tries to push him in the fissure.

As he sees Avalanche getting close the second time, Spyke surrounds his body with spikes but doesn't get a chance to use them as he is pushed into an unnoticed fissure behind him. He falls in the fissure but luckily he grabs the edge before falling in.

As Avalanche pushes him in the fissure his hands get cut from the sudden sprout of spikes on Spyke's body "Oowww! You bitch! Look what you did to my hands!" he spots Spyke hanging from the ledge and steps on his hands to keep him from climbing up.

"Ow! Let go of me mud brain!" Spyke yelled from the pain of his fingers being stepped on.

"I don't think so" Avalanche said closing the fissure.

* * *

Rogue leaped to catch Toad, now with her gloves off, but Toad hopped away.

Rogue's lack of any helpful power is really showing when she has trouble handling Toad.

"Stand still so I can absorb ya already!" She yelled as she leaped at him again.

"No way yo, I ain't lettin you touch me" he replied.

Toad dodges another attempt of Rogue's but this time he drop kicks her and she falls down to the ground. Toad then spits sludge at Rogue's face covering her nose and mouth preventing her from breathing.

Rogue struggles to remove the sticky sludge from her face.

Toad then lands on her stomach knocking the wind out of her and making her situation worse.

Rouge's vision starts to blur as she is seconds away from losing consciousness.

"Oh what's the matter yo? Toad got your tongue stuck?" he said.

Luckily Rogue doesn't need her eyes to find where he is because she can hear him. She grabs his face absorbing his life energy and he drops to the floor. Rogue shoots her tongue out and shreds the sludge of her mouth in the process.

She gets up gasping for air, filling her previous empty lungs with oxygen. She then gets up and kick's Toad's lifeless body in the face, "Fucker!"

* * *

Eileen kisses Dean until she has to stop and gasp for breath.

Dean starts to feel his body again and tries to get up but Eileen shuts him down again with another full powered blast. "Sit down, handsome. The party's just starting." She said.

Dean opens his eyes and looks her in the eye. Her eyes were blazing with passion and intensity towards him. 'This is probably every guy's fantasy. It probably still is one of mine too. But if I'm gonna have a relationship and be serious about it, I have to stop openly flirting with other girls. Especially really desperate ones' He thought to himself.

Eileen had to control herself from drooling. Just the sheer size of him and the warmth of his body are so comforting. She unzips his vest revealing his finely cut abdominals and blood pumps a little harder in her veins, heat seems to fill her, her arms circle his neck and she pulls him in, kissing him deeply and making a low pleasurable not escape from the back of her throat.

Her hand touches his chest and slowly makes its way lower. Lower to the point where her hand is right above his crotch, "Hmm" she moans in pleasure.

If this goes on any longer, Eileen is gonna have a party in his pants.

"Get off him!" they hear suddenly and Phantazia is lifted in the air and thrown into a pile of mud.

Jean helps Dean out of the hole and rests him on the ground, "Are you ok?" she asked him.

Dean struggles to lift himself up with limited amount of control over his body, "Yeah just gimme a minute to shake, whatever she did to me, off." He said panting. It's a good thing his body was numb or he would be very 'stiff' right about now, and that would be awkward.

Dean feels some of his strength return to him, "Alright that feels better." He notices Jean giving him an angry look, 'Oh shit' he thought to himself.

"Uh, listen. What you saw back there, I wasn't—"

"Not now." She spots Phantazia getting back up, "I'll handle _her_ for now, go take care of Blob." she said giving him the cold shoulder.

'Well I guess I deserve that much' Dean Thought as he went to go find Blob.

Phantazia gets up and notices her hair full of mud. Her eyes widen, 'My hair, ruined. And I had just gotten it done today!'

Jean spots a twitching in Eileen's eye and ready's herself for what is about to come.

"YOU BITCH!" Phantazia yelled, "YOU RUINED MY HAIR!" She shot a big EM Blast at Marvel Girl.

Marvel Girl created a TK Shield to protect herself. She then lifted boulder into the air and threw it at her.

Phantazia blasts it out of the sky spreading dust all over.

Marvel Girl waits for the dust to clear but to her surprise Phantazia shot through the mist and tackled Marvel Girl and started physically beating on her.

* * *

Fever Pitch throws two fireballs, one from each hand, at different spots trying to predict where Cyclops was going to be.

Cyclops dodges one by leaping to the right but didn't see the other one coming right after it. The second fireball hit him right in the back sending him forward from the force of it.

Cyclops grabs his back and feels the burnt spot where the fireball hit him. Luckily the uniform protected him from anything beyond first degree burn. But from the feeling of the scorched fabric on his back on that one spot, there won't be anything to protect him next time.

He spots Fever Pitch charging two more fireballs in his hands. Fever pitch throws the first one and like before Cyclops dodges the first one but when the second one comes Cyclops shoots through it with his optic beam.

Almost taking Fever Pitch by surprise he quickly moves to the side to avoid the optic beam.

Cyclops starts to rapid fire his optic blasts as best to his ability to keep Fever Pitch on his toes and keeping his movement more instinct based.

'I really hope this works. Or else I have no idea how to beat him' he thought to himself. He shoots his optic blast in a pattern where his only escape is to fly to the left. Before Fever Pitch even made his move Cyclops shot another Optic blast slightly to the left. And as Fever Pitch tried to maneuver around the blasts, one passed right by his feet interrupting the trail of fire behind him.

Fever Pitch starts to fall out of the sky, 'Yes! It worked.' Cyclops thought. Cyclops figured that the only way he can be flying is if he's projecting a lot of heat beneath his feet, hence the trail of fire. And if the trail of fire was interrupted somehow he would fall out of the sky, and don't forget that its really hard to focus when you're falling through the air.

Cyclops waits for the right moment and shoots Fever Pitch into a wall knocking him out.

* * *

Avalanche starts to close the fissure, "Get ready to be squashed" he said with a grin. Before he could actually do it a hand goes on his face and then he drops to the floor.

Rogue puts her glove back on and helps Spyke out of the fissure, "You ok?" she asked.

"Yeah" he said rubbing his fingers, "Let's go see if anybody else needs help."

* * *

Quicksilver speeds up trying to run over Shadowcat in the process but just phases through her once again. He tries again, again, again, and again, but the same result every time.

Quicksilver kicks up some sand hoping to get it Shadowcat's eyes before speeding up again. Both the sand and Quicksilver phase through her. "OH. MY. GOD. STOP JUST STANDING THERE!" He yelled.

Shadowcat shrugs and phases under the ground.

Quicksilver starts running around a little trying to keep himself from being caught from beneath.

All of a sudden while he's running a hand comes out of the ground and grabs his leg making him trip and fall.

"What the—"he spots Shadowcat's hand, "Oh come, how did she get me!" then the hand starts to pull him under. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, NOOOOO!" He screams as he's pulled entirely beneath the ground.

Shadowcat phases up out of the ground, "That should keep him busy for a while." She goes to walk away.

As she's walking away she feels a rumble beneath the ground.

Out of nowhere a twister bursts out of the ground. When the twister stops, Shadowcat see's a very angry looking Quicksilver. "Alright then, let's play it your way" he speeds up and starts running circles around Shadowcat while throwing random punches hoping to get lucky.

Shadowcat can only hold her phased state as long as she can hold her breath. As soon as she goes to breathe again Quicksilver hits her in the chest knocking her down.

Quicksilver stops for a second, 'I hit her? But how?' he thinks back to when he hit her and remembers Shadowcat trying to inhale. He grins, 'She can only use her power as long as she can hold her breath.'

Quicksilver once again speeds up and starts running circles around Shadowcat while she's down. Only this time he's not throwing any punches. But just in case he does Shadowcat holds her breath.

Quicksilver starts to move even faster creating a vacuum that sucks out all the oxygen inside of it.

Again the moment comes when Shadowcat can't hold her breath any longer and tries to inhale but is surprised to find no oxygen to breathe. She holds her throat, choking from the lack of air, she falls down losing consciousness.

Then all of a sudden a red optic beam hits Quicksilver and is taken back from the force of it. Cyclops, Spyke, and Rogue show up.

"Rogue, get Shadowcat out of here. Me and Spyke will handle Quicksilver." Cyclops said.

"Got it" Rogue said putting Shadowcat over her shoulder.

Quicksilver gets back up, "You think it's that easy? Well it won't be. Cause nothing touches Quicksilver." He said with a grin.

* * *

Blob gets up holding his head from the splitting headache Marvel Girl gave him earlier. He waits a little bit and his head starts to clear. He spots Rogue carrying Shadowcat away from the battle and decides to have a little fun with them, he starts running towards them stomping the ground.

Rogue spots him running towards them and isn't ready to retaliate with Kitty on her shoulder.

"I don't think so!" Achilles trips Blob and he falls face first.

Blob gets right back up and takes a good look at Achilles, "So who are you supposed to be?"

"I'm Achilles" Dean said with pride.

"Achilles? Ha! That's so stu—"Blob gets punched square in the face.

"I'm sorry; you were saying something about you being stupid? Please continue." Achilles said taking a defensive stance.

"Raaahhh!" he yelled trying to bash Achilles.

Achilles backs away from the bone crushing bash and avoids it, 'I hope I can use the same technique as last time.' Achilles rushes forward but Blob stomps in front of himself making Achilles back up from the force of the blow. 'Guess not'

Blob tries to hit Achilles with his left punch, right, left, right, hook, and an uppercut. Achilles dodges Blob's pathetic attempts to hit him with ease.

Achilles see's an opening and sends a right hand to Blob's midsection, he's shocked to see that Blob's body seemingly absorbed the shock of the hit like a big balloon. He tries again with a left hand but the same result.

"Ha! You can't hurt me! I'm the Blob!"

"Wanna bet?" Achilles said raising an eyebrow. He jumps up and gives him a mean right hook that makes Blob take a step back from the force of it.

Blob actually manages to backhand Achilles before he could follow up on his attack.

Achilles lands hard on the ground, "Ok, note to self, don't stay in close for too long."

Blob again tries to hit Achilles with his slow attacks and fails.

"Well this isn't any fun, you're too slow" Achilles said mocking Blob.

The anger can clearly be seen on Blob's face, "Shut up!" he bashes the ground, where Achilles stood not a second ago, in a hulkish manor cracking the ground. Blob continues his futile attempts to hit Achilles.

'Ok so how do I take him out? C'mon think, this is a construction site. There should be something that can help me.' He looks around for something that stands out.

Blob sends an overhand fist at him and Achilles jumps up to avoid it, he spots a wrecking machine a little far back. 'Well that could work, but how do I get him to stay still?' He lands on the ground and back up from a left hook from Blob.

Blob see's a pole and lifts it out of the ground and throws it like a spear.

Achilles spots the incoming pole and simply moves slightly to the left avoiding it all together. He takes a step back and notices a strange feeling underneath his foot, he looks at it, 'Wet cement?' he thought. His eyes widen, he looks back at the crane then back at the cement. "Now this I can work with" he said grinning.

He waits for Blob to get a little closer, "Hey Fred, I don't think Blob is a good name for you. We should call you Lardy Mcfatfuck" he said with the absolute straightest face he could manage.

Blob's face flushes with red, "SHUT UP!" He screams as he runs at him in a fit of rage.

Achilles jumps above him just as his hands were outstretched to grab him and uses a double axe-handle on his back sending him crashing down into the cement. 'Thank you Seth MacFarlane' he thought.

He runs over to the crane and pulls back the wrecking ball for a mean swing.

Blob slowly gets up from the pile of wet cement but his face is covered with it and he tries to clear the cement from his eyes.

"HEY BLOB!" Achilles yelled.

Blob turns around and spots the wrecking ball all too late, POW! He wobbles around for a few seconds before landing on the floor without moving another inch.

"Yeah! Take it in the face! Woo...wait…that came out wrong"

* * *

"Do you know how long it took to get my hair like this?!" Phantazia screamed as she kept hitting Marvel girl.

Marvel Girl has had enough of Phantazia's tantrum and forms a TK shield between them protecting her. She then surrounds Phantazia with the shield creating a sphere around her. Phantazia bashes at the shield trying to free herself, and then she starts blasting the shield building up pressure.

The pressure builds to the point where Marvel Girl is forced to release Phantazia.

Phantazia goes to shoot her but Marvel girl quickly takes hold of Phantazia's hands using her telekinesis and stretches them out sideways.

She struggles against the invisible restraints on her hands, "Let go of me you stupid red-haired whore!"

"I'm warning you to stop this now or else" Marvel girl said.

"Or else what sugar queen? You're gonna throw some more rocks at me?" Phantazia replied.

She glared at her, "No" she said, "I'll do this" Marvel Girl shoved her face into the ground as hard as she could, knocking her out. "That's for bruising my face!" she yelled rubbing her bruised cheek.

Cyclops fires his optic beam trying to hit Quicksilver but misses.

Spyke tries the same with his spikes but also fails.

"You guy's suck at this. Maybe you should go home and practice" Quicksilver taunted.

Cyclops tries again with a wider beam, but fails again.

"Come on, shades!" another miss.

"You can't hit me!" another miss.

This time Spyke and Cyclops try at the same time but it didn't work.

"Don't even bother!" Quicksilver appears in front of the two of them, "I'm too fast" he runs away as they leap for him and knocking into each other.

Quicksilver starts running circles around Cyclops and Spyke making them fire randomly around them.

"You can't hit me, can ya? Ha ha ha." He hits Cyclops in the back as he passes by him.

Spyke tries to follow Quicksilver's movements and fires right where Cyclops was standing.

"Whoa!" Cyclops yelled ducking under the incoming spikes, "Watch it Spike, don't accidentally hit me."

"My bad, man" he replied trying to track down Quicksilver again.

Quicksilver passes by Spike and trips his legs making him fall down, "Pull yourself together Evan"

Cyclops notices Marvel Girl is finished with her battle, "Marvel Girl, I could use a little help here!"

"On it" she focuses on Quicksilver.

As Quicksilver is running he suddenly floats off the ground and comes to a stop, "Hey, no fair!" Quicksilver yelled.

Cyclops blasts him out of the sky sending him crashing to the floor knocking him out, "Finally, that's over."

Scott helps Evan up, "Man, I'm gonna get him one of these days" Evan complained.

"I'm sure you will, Evan." Scott replied.

The rest of the x-men gather round and regroup, "So is everyone accounted for?" Scott asked looking around and spotting every Brotherhood member passed out.

"Yeah, everyone except for Mystique" Dean said holding up a cloak he found on the ground.

"She must have escaped while we were fighting." Rogue said.

"Well then there's nothing we can do" Dean said as he picked up Kurt's still unconscious body, "Let's go home."

**Back at the Institute**

The Professor, Logan, Dean, Scott, and Jean gathered in the study to discuss exactly what happened.

"So the dreams Rogue was having were really Mystique's." Logan said

"I'm afraid so. Rogue must have picked them up when she touched her. Mystique may very well be the boy's mother, but we may never know the truth now." The Professor said, "There was nothing left of the lab?" he asked Logan.

"Nothing" Logan said bluntly, "Whoever was running it didn't want us finding anything. But before it went kabloui it looked like the kind of place Dr. Frankenstein might have been comfortable in."

"Genetic experimentation on mutants? I hadn't realized that he was willing to go that far and poor Kurt" The Professor said.

"So when are you gonna tell Kurt about all this?" Dean asked.

"I'm not so sure the Elf needs to know, at least not yet. Some of this stuff can be pretty damaging." Logan said.

Jean and Scott remained silent.

Dean is compelled to speak about Charon's comment about Kurt, but he holds his tongue only because he's not 100% sure yet. When the time is right he'll tell the Professor.

But to think that Dean could have killed Kurt's mother, it's a good thing Zeus stopped him before he did or Kurt would have no clue where he came from. But then again maybe Kurt would have been better off not knowing at all.

* * *

There's a knock on Jean's door. She checks with her mind to see who it is, and immediately knows. "Go away"

"C'mon, you're really gonna make me talk to you through the door?" Dean's voice could be heard from outside the door.

Jean opens the door with her telekinesis and Dean walks in with wearing black shorts and a black tank top, his house-wear clothing.

He closes the door behind him and spots her sitting on her bed with her arms crossed over her chest, "What do you want?" she asked.

"Oh, I just wanted to talk about what you saw earlier with me and…..that girl." Dean carefully chooses his words.

"Go on" she said.

He explains every detail about the encounter and…well maybe he left out a lot of the kissy details but anyways….and explained that he was forced into it and that her powers rendered him helpless.

"And so that's how it went down." Dean said awaiting Jean's reply.

She gets up off her bed, walks up to him, and looks him in the eye.

'A little unexpected but better than a denial' he thought.

She smirks, "You know usually in this kind of situation I would read the person's mind and see if they're lying, but I can't. So there's no real way of knowing…so I guess I'm just going to have to trust you."

'Ok scratch that, this is worse than denial. This is very suspicious' "I know I'm going to regret this later but why? I thought you would have stayed mad at me."

"Well….it's that I can't read your mind. Everyone is usually an open book to me, but you aren't. With you I get to have a normal relationship without worrying about invading your mind, plus it's good for learning trust.

'Well what do ya know' "In that case I want to ask you something." He said.

"What is it?" she said.

He pulls a red rose out of his back, "Will you go on a date with me?"

She gasps, "Oh um, sure. I would love to" she said with a wide smile.

**The next day before class**

Kurt and Rogue are sitting by Kurt's porch.

"I still can't believe it. Mystique is my mother?" he said as if the idea disgusted him.

"Listen Kurt, who really knows? I mean that's one seriously disturbed lady, maybe she's just messin with ya." Rogue suggests.

"I guess, but there is a certain resemblance." Kurt said.

"Hey look, that doesn't mean anything. Let's just wait till the Prof finds more answers for ya, then you'll know for sure." Rogue said.

"Somehow, I think he already knows more than he's willing to tell us." Kurt said.

"Maybe, but if he does, he's probably got good reasons for not tellin you." Rogue said knowing what he means.

"Yeah sure" he said.

"Listen, Kurt, I really know what you're going through. We'll both keep looking and we'll find our answers together someday, ok?" she asked.

"Yeah, ok" he replied.

"Hey, it's almost time for school and I've got finals. I gotta finish getting ready, and so do you" she said walking away.

"Thanks Rogue" he smiles and shows her a thumb up.

As she walks away she rubs a tear out of her eye.

When she leaves the room his sad face returns to haunt him. He left out the detail where Mystique sort of confirmed his demon father; he doesn't need any more attention today.

**At Bayville High**

A similar face haunts the principal, or you could say Mystique.

She looks out the window and spots a little girl leaving her mother's car, "Thanks for the ride mom, see you after school"

Why can't she have her son with her? Life sometimes isn't fair. Like right about now.

The room rumbles and all metal objects float into the air. The shades close and a stapler and a ruler wrap around Mystique's wrists and hoist her into the air, "I warned you never to reveal to him his origin. Now look what you've done, he hates you" said Magneto coming out of the shadows.

"I didn't think that—"

"Yes you didn't think, that's exactly your problem. When it comes to your precious demon son you forget everything. You even gave away my position." He said.

"Xavier came to me, how was I supposed to—"

"Silence!" he shouted. "We will speak of this no more, because we will have no need to speak of it. Understood?" he asked.

She swallows her pride, "Fully."

"Good" he lets her go, "Now then onto other matters. This boy this, Achilles, is more resourceful than I realized. We need one more to even the odds, I will not have Xavier's team be my team's superior."

"But Magnus, there are no others left. All the other mutants we found do not have the power or skill to match his ability." She said.

"Oh but there is one. One that will be his match of power and skill. But he's not ready yet, just a little more time and he will be ready to fight." He said.

"But who is this mutant you speak of?" she asked.

He smiled, "In time you will see."

**Somewhere near the small community of Elkford**

There is a wide room with all kinds of cables and life size water tanks. A man at the end of the room is standing in front of one empty water tank at the end of the room. The man is wearing an all white lab coat, square glasses that prevent you from seeing his eyes, and he's completely bald.

All of a sudden the doors to the room open and in comes Sabertooth carrying a battered, bleeding, and bruised young man with long dark hair over his shoulder.

"How goes the training with X-24 Sabertooth?" The Professor asked.

Sabertooth sets down X-24 inside the water tank, "He's gotten really good over the past few weeks. Almost too good Professor" He added, the tank fills up with water and X-24 floats unconscious in it. Sabertooth and everyone else from the weapon X program knew him only as Professor and nothing else.

The Professor smiles, "As expected. He is designed to one day exceed the expectations of Weapon X after all."

"What do you mean one day? I thought he reached the peak of his abilities when he stopped improving." Sabertooth said.

"Oh don't worry. It takes time for it to kick in. He will continue to grow for another year or so." The Professor said.

"It almost took two of us to take him down, how do you plan on controlling him?" Sabertooth said.

"The same way I control the rest of you." The Professor said.

Sabertooth remains silent with that note. He hates having that chip in his brain.

"Now then…..X-24 is getting boring. We should rename him…..oh what is it Lady Deathstrike calls him again?" The Professor asked.

"Ummmm…. I think it was something like—"Sabertooth said.

Lady Deathstrike walks in, "Daken" she said.

"Ah, Deathstrike. Why do you call the boy this?" The Professor asked.

"It means bastard dog. You created him in a lab, he has no heritage and his closest relative is Wolverine. He deserves to be named that." She said with cold hatred towards Wolverine.

"In that case I will try to find a more suitable name for him, one that does not mock him." He said eyeballing her, "Until then," he said. "We should give him an assignment, don't you think?" he said to Sabertooth.

"I don't know if he's ready yet." Sabertooth replied.

"Oh I think he is" as he said that all the boy's wounds healed in an instant right before their eyes.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

_First Date_

**At the institute**

Vacation. One of the biggest things students look forward to during the school year. It is the time to relax, not think about grades, sleep a lot, have fun, and wait for the absolute last possible second to do your homework…..…..Don't give me that look, everyone does it.

It is Monday, spring break. The X-men are enjoying their vacation with a late breakfast right now, due to the extra hours of sleep they're getting. But it won't last long; Logan probably has the rest of the week planned with crazy danger room sessions to keep them plenty busy in the morning.

They all have some sort of plans to enjoy themselves somehow, but today will be an interesting day for Dean. Today he plans to have his date with Jean, which they have decided to keep discreet.

Their secrecy was all due to keeping the others from annoyingly teasing them and making a huge deal out of it. But they do have to be careful, news in this house spreads like wildfire. Especially with Kitty's big mouth, she's definitely a gossip queen.

Last time, Jean had told Kitty that Dean supposedly could sing (he told her but refused to demonstrate) and within minutes the whole mansion was teasing him about it. Of course when Dean threatened to pulverize them they all dropped it, but it was still annoying.

Another reason this will be an interesting day for Dean is that today is the first day of Easter week. Why is this interesting you might say? Well you're about to find out.

Dean walked in the dining room after taking a shower, (after using the gravity simulator as he's been doing ever since Forge made it) wearing gray sweat pants and a black tank top, he looks around the table watching everyone munching down through sausages, eggs, bacon, toasted bread.

Dean would usually have jumped right in and devoured everything in sight, but instead he just sighed and pouted before going into the kitchen. He came back out a few minutes later bringing out a couple of PBJ sandwiches with him.

He sat down and started eating his self-made sandwiches in silence.

Everyone at the table slowly noticed this and all of a sudden stopped what they were doing. They all looked at each other like "What's going on here?" faces. Dean isn't eating all the scrumptious breakfast food on the table? Very strange behavior, which brings a question to someone's mouth.

"What are you doing?" Kitty asked.

"What does it look like? I'm eating." He answered.

"Yeah but you went and made yourself peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when all this meaty food is on the table" Jean said.

"So?" Dean asked.

"So what's with the change man? That's not like you" Evan said.

Dean takes a look at the food on the table, "I can't eat that stuff."

"Vhy not?" Kurt asked.

"Because….I'm fasting." Dean answered.

Everyone seemed to get even more confused at his answer. "Why are ya fasting?" Rogue asked him.

Dean sighed, "I'm fasting because it's Easter week. Greek's fast on Easter week, its part of my religion. I can't eat anything that comes from animals with blood inside of them."

Everyone was kind of taken back at his response. That was definitely not a response they were expecting.

Logan snorts, "You don't seem like the religious type kid." He said.

"Well being Greek usually means you're religious, but to me it's more of a tradition I guess. I've just gotten used to doing it every year."

"Well I think that it's a good thing that you are doing Dean." Said the Professor, "Faith is something that I seldom see in this house."

Dean finishes his last sandwich, "It's nothing really." He gets up, "Well I'm going out to get some fresh air."

**Somewhere near the small community of Elkford**

Sabertooth and Lady Deathstrike are "training" with X-24. That is if you call slaughter training.

The boy is on the ground recovering from the last attack from Lady Deathstrike, the wounds all over his back and chest heal and leave nothing but some smudges of blood on his skin.

Sabertooth rushes him from the left hoping to take the boy by surprise. X-24 punches Sabertooth's chest and elbows him in the back as he passes by him.

Deathstrike takes advantage of the opportunity and thrusts her nail claws inside of the boy's chest, "AAAHHH!" he yelled out.

X-24 lifts his head to meet her eyes. He stares deeply into them making it clear she's pissed him off enough today.

Surprisingly X-24 grabs Deathstrike's hands and slowly pulls them out of himself.

She tries to retaliate but the boy's strength is too much for her.

X-24 holds on to Deathstrike's hands so she doesn't move.

Again she tries to kick him all over but nothing even phases him.

X-24 pulls back his head and then head butts her with all his strength stunning her before kicking her in the chest sending her crashing into a pine tree.

The boy smells Sabertooth coming from behind and gets him with a leg sweep.

X-24 grabs Sabertooth's leg and starts bashing him back and forth like Bam Bam from the Flintstones. He finally lets him down, grabs both of Sabertooth's arms, steps on his back and starts pulling with all his might.

Sabertooth can feel the flesh and bones on his arms beginning to tear and break.

All of a sudden behind him one of Deathstrike's claws goes through the boy's back and out of his chest.

Sabertooth then gets him with a right hook to the ribs from behind him instantly re-breaking his already broken ribs.

Deathstrike removes her finger claw and X-24 falls to the ground holding his midsection, this had to be like the third time he broke his ribs this session.

Sabertooth and Deathstrike then continue to beat on him while he's down in order to keep him down.

"Alright that's enough" The Professor said watching the fight.

Sabertooth and Deathstrike back away from X-24's lifeless body. Within a few minutes all his injuries are healed and he wakes again.

* * *

Dean was practicing some of his Jeet Kune Do techniques out in the open in the woods.

He pauses and decides to rest a little and meditate. He remembers a year ago from today, his lessons with Dan Inosanto. What a week that was.

**Flashback**

"Now you have to understand. Wing Chun is a major factor in the Jeet Kune Do evolution." Mr. Inosanto said, "In order to Understand Jeet Kune Do you have to learn at least some Wing Chun."

"But I don't have much time, I only have a week. Why can't I just go straight to JKD?" Dean asked.

Mr. Inosanto sighed, young and rash, just as he expected. "Tell me, who was Bruce Lee's most important teacher?"

Well that was obvious, "Yip Man, of course."

"Well without Yip Man there would have never been a Bruce Lee. It's important to take the knowledge in the past, without Yip Man, Bruce Lee would have never reached the level of skill he achieved."

"I understand."

Mr. Inosanto smiled, "Good, now try and hit me." He said getting into a traditional Wing Chun stance.

"Um ok, sure." He got into his own stance, 'I better not use too much power or speed, I don't want to hurt the guy.' He sent a fairly weak punch that would appear normal to a "normal" person.

With almost blinding speed Mr. Inosanto blocks with one hand and punches with the other, he doesn't actually punch Dean, he's just demonstrating.

"Whoa, that was fast." Dean said.

Mr. Inosanto smiled, "Now try again a few more times."

He tried a few times more with different combinations and Mr. Inosanto countered with different versions of blocking and attacking. Sometimes he would just push the incoming fist slightly out of the way and attack with his other hand. Other times he would trap Dean's hand between his shoulder and head and attack with his free hand.

But each and every time he would successfully block and counter with amazing speed, even by Dean's standards.

"Now do you get why Wing Chun is important?" he asked.

"Absolutely, this is very similar to what I've seen of JKD before. I want to learn more."

**_A few days later_**

"Alright, I've taught you all I know about Wing Chun. Now we can begin with Jeet Kune Do." Mr. Inosanto said.

Dean's face grew an enormous smile.

"Now do you know what Jeet Kune Do stands for?" He asked.

Dean mentally slapped himself for not knowing that. "I'm afraid not."

"Jeet Kune Do is Cantonese for "The way of the Intercepting fist" or foot. Now try and hit me, anyway you can."

Dean went to get a little closer but was quickly stopped by Mr. Inosanto's foot.

"You see? To reach me you must move to me. Your attack offers me an opportunity to intercept you; in this case I'm using my longest weapon. My side kick, against the nearest target, your kneecap. This can be compared to your left jab in boxing, except it's much more damaging." He said.

"I see" Dean said tensing up, he tries to throw a punch but again his teacher's fist quickly passes by his own.

"This time I sensed your emotional tenseness. You see how much time you lost for your thought to reach your fist? That is something else you should work on." He said.

"So how are you going to teach me that?" Dean asked.

"I cannot teach you this. I can only help you to explore yourself, nothing more." He said.

**_At the end of the week_**

"I thank you for all that you taught me. I only regret that I couldn't learn more."Dean said.

"Ah don't be so sad, you learned more in a week than most do in years. You have potential, but you must unlock it. Don't forget what you learned here and always practice."

"I know." Dean said pouting.

"And don't forget, like water." He said.

"Oh my god, what is that supposed to mean anyways?" Dean complained hearing it for like the 50th time.

Mr. Inosanto sighed, "It means empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. You always use those stances of yours that limit your capability to move and react properly. You must learn to adapt to every attack that comes at you. Now if you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. If you put it into a tea pot, it becomes the tea pot. Now water can flow, or creep, or drip, or crash...be water my friend."

Dean actually finally understands what he was being told all this time.

"Like everyone else you want to learn the way to win, but never to accept the way to lose. In order to learn better you must free your ambitious mind, remember that. Now before you go, know this. Your training is not yet complete, if you wish to come back I will let you know the perfect time to come so I can teach you uninterrupted, agreed?" Mr. Inosanto asked.

"Agreed."

**End Flashback**

He still doesn't use much of JKD techniques that much. He finds no situation to use them, Logan's training sessions are challenging right now but if he used JKD techniques they might not be. Dean could be wrong but nonetheless he still wants to improve physically first.

Dean look's at his phone and see's the time, 'I better get going before I'm late for my date'

* * *

Jean was so excited. Her first date with Dean, something she's been wondering about ever since they started spending time together.

Today they planned to go see a movie, Dean let her pick out which one to watch. Dean knew from the start that they were going to see something he was going to hate, so he just let Jean do the honors. And guess what Jean picked, a romantic film.

Jean just finished getting ready and walks out of her room in a fast pace to go find her handsome date.

She found him ready to go waiting for her by the doorway leaning on the door with his arms and legs crossed.

He was wearing his traditional leather boots, black jeans, and leather jacket. To complete his outfit he was wearing a red t-shirt underneath his jacket and was wearing a belt with lightning bolt buckle.

He notices her coming down the stairs and sends her a warm smile, "You ready?" he asked.

"Yeah, let's go." She said walking out with him.

"And just where are you two going together?" Logan asked passing by.

They both stop in their tracks and look at each other clueless as to what to say without giving away that this is a date.

As usual Dean comes through with his slick tongue, "The real question is if Kurt is done shaving his legs again?"

Logan's eyes widen at the memory of the last time Kurt shaved his legs and clogged up the whole plumbing system, and Logan had to fix it. "ELF!" he yelled running to go find Kurt.

"And problem solved." Dean said opening the door for Jean.

Jean chuckles, "How did you find out about that anyways?"

"A little "cat" told me." He said with a wink.

Jean laughs at his joke.

Dean smiles and looks into her green eyes. He was looking forward to taking her out. This will be the first time in his life he's been on a date with someone who knows what he is and who he can be himself with. That alone will make this a great experience.

* * *

Rogue found herself once again with nothing to do so she went down to the gym area to work out a little bit of her frustration.

She hits the heavy bag with left jab, then a heavy right hook followed by a left knee to the midsection.

She moves over to the sliding heavy bag, her personal favorite. For some reason, Rogue took a liking to this specific one.

Rogue back's up and lands a powerful kick on the heavy bag's torso area sending it sliding sideways.

She moves to the opposite end and mixes a combo of punches and kicks before ending with a powerful high kick sending the bag sliding again.

She always felt that whenever she hit that bag with her foot, and sent it sliding, she imagined herself kicking away all her problems; Her inability to control her mutant power, her messed up past with Mystique and her inevitable lonely future.

Rogue walks away from the sliding heavy bag and sets herself on the bench press machine. '150 should be just fine' she thought to herself.

Lately, observing Dean's dedication to exercising his body has slightly motivated her to try harder.

Rogue changes her mind and sets the weight to 200 ib. She lifts the bar up and down feeling the burn in her muscles to the newly adjusted weight.

* * *

Dean and Jean walk out of the theater room, "So how did you like it?" Jean asked him.

Dean shrugs, "It was alright, I've seen better" he throws the popcorn he was eating in the garbage, "I've had better popcorn too."

"I'll agree that the popcorn stinks, but the movie wasn't that bad." Jean said.

"Just the way they handled their situation was hilarious" He said, "Each one of those ladies has a different problem with their man and what they all needed to do was be honest and have some self-respect. But no, they just listen to some weird book that 'supposedly' explains men's behavior." He said laughing.

"But can you blame them? They didn't have anything else to do." Jean said sharing a laugh.

Dean looks at her, "Well look, if you ever have a problem with something I do, let me know. Don't play mind games to get your way, just be honest."

"Alright Mr. Relationship expert, I will"

"Hey leave the sarcasm to the professional" he said pointing to himself.

They walk outside and Jean immediately felt the cold air touch her skin.

"Oh my god, it got so much colder. And I didn't even bring a jacket with me." Jean said shivering.

"Here you can take mine" he takes off his leather jacket, "I don't feel cold anyways" he hands it to her.

"You sure?" she said.

"Jean, trust me. I'll be fine"

She quickly takes and puts it on, "Wow, I feel so warm in this thing." She said zipping up the oversized looking jacket, "Why is it so warm?" she asked.

"Well first, the wind doesn't get through the leather. And second, my body radiates more heat than an average person. Probably due to the amount of density in my muscles."

She comes closer and leans on his chest as they walk towards the parking lot, "Well I'm glad these things have more than one use" she said pointing at his biceps.

Dean smiles and puts his arm around her.

* * *

Rogue was on her last set on the bench press, 200ib was definitely giving her the challenge she needed.

'5…6' she thought counting her repetitions.

'7….8 almost done'

'9…'she prepares herself for the last press. She pushes with whatever energy she has left in her arms and brings the bar about half-way up. At that point all her struggles are for nothing, she can feel her muscles slowly giving out and the bar starts to get lower.

All of a sudden Scott walks in, "Hey Rogue, have you seen..." he notices her struggle on the bar and spots it getting lower. "Whoa" he runs over to her and helps her bring the bar back up and notices the difference in weight compared to her usual amount, "What's with the extra weight Rogue?" Scott asked concerned.

She gets up from the bench and grabs her towel, "I wanted ta push myself a little, is that so bad?" she said defending herself while wiping the sweat off her face.

"Well no, but you moved up quite a bit from your usual amount that's all." Scott said.

"Don't worry about it, ahm fine. I don't need ya help" She said walking away.

Scott is left standing there clueless as to what he did wrong, "Ok then"

Rogue takes her time walking to her room; her mind is in a deep train of thought. The more members the X-men have the more useless she feels. Everyone can do something beneficial to the team, but what can she do?

She can get her butt kicked by Toad, that's what. That was totally humiliating, and the worst part is there was no one else there to help her. She had to handle it on her own, not like everyone else who got help with their fights.

Rogue longs to feel important…more specifically to feel needed. And right now she's not really feeling a "need" vibe from her teammates. Nobody really understands her; Kitty is her roommate so she knows more than the average person and Kurt has made a bond with her ever since their encounter with his past.

But to be honest though…..Dean has gotten really close to her and treats her like a good friend. He constantly says that he believes that Rogue will eventually control her powers but Rogue doesn't believe that for one second. She just can't comprehend how a thing like that could be possible. But still, it helps to have someone who believes in you. Rogue smiles at that thought.

* * *

Dean walks Jean to the entrance to the mansion, "You know, on a regular date this would be the moment when I would have to say goodbye and goodnight; but we live in the same house."

Jean giggles, "Yeah, I guess so."

Dean and Jean's eyes meet and take a moment to just admire what they're looking at.

Jean had a great time tonight, the movie was great, the ride home was great, and the whole time Dean was respectful and didn't try anything on her. In Jean's eyes, Dean was a true gentleman tonight, and a gentleman deserves a reward.

Jean leans closer to Dean's face and lands a kiss on his cheek, far from the lips but close enough to be a major tease. Well at least a small reward.

"Goodnight" She said walking inside.

Dean stood there watching her walk inside. When she did go inside he touched the spot where her lips touched his cheek.

His face grew an enormous smile and he leapt towards the cliff where he could see the ocean, something beautiful to look at while thinking of someone beautiful.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

_Brains over Brawn_

Dean sat by the cliff above the water, he'd sat there all night until the sun rose up. The view of the sea behind the institute was gorgeous. The way the sun's rays touched the water and made it shine golden. The sound of small waves crashing against the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. The salty smell of the sea. It reminded him of the land of his ancestors, Greece.

Dean always loved swimming. Although it was nothing compared to how he felt about the sky, since he was a little boy he dreamed that he would fly someday. But those are dreams for children, that'll never happen. Anyways speaking of swimming, 'I think I'll go for a dip' Dean thought.

Dean undressed down to his underwear. It was a very warm day, suitable for taking a dip. He looked down to the bottom of the cliff and spotted a bunch of rocks that would probably hurt him if he jumped down and landed on them.

'No worries' Dean thought. He leaped farther out towards the water and passed the rocks landing safely into the water.

He dives deep into the water and grabs a handful of sand just so he knows that he reached the bottom. 'That must have been about 20 feet deep' Dean thought.

When Dean resurfaces he doesn't gasp for air as a normal human would. His heart beat is still slow and so is his breathing.

'I wonder how long I can hold my breath' Dean thought, 'or how fast I can swim...eh who cares' Dean's body laid flat on the water in a dead man's float position and enjoyed the soothing feeling of the ocean. He relaxed so much that his eye lids grew heavy and he drifted to sleep.

* * *

Four figures appeared running down a hill. Two boys and two girls. One boy was dark haired with blue eyes. The other boy's lower body resembled a goat's bottom, presumably a satyr. One girl was buff and tough looking and her hair was long, stringy and brown. The other girl was smaller with curly beautiful blonde hair, but she was unconscious in the satyr's arms. They all looked very young, probably a year or two younger than Dean.

"**Grind you into sheep chow!**" a voice roared, "**A thousand curses on Nobody!**"

"**Faster!**" the dark haired boy told the buff girl.

The four youngsters came across a bridge and ran for their lives. The satyr made it across first and set the blonde girl down.

"**Grover!**" the dark haired boy yelled, "**Get Annabeth's knife!**"

Grover, the satyr, nodded like he understood but suddenly his eyes widened at what he saw behind the other two youngsters. A Cyclops, and a weirdly dressed one at that.

He was dressed in a wedding outfit—a crude kilt and shoulder-wrap stitched together from baby-blue tuxedos, as if he'd skinned an entire wedding party.

As the two youngsters scrambled across the bridge, Grover began sawing at the ropes. The first strand went _snap!_

The Cyclops bounded after them, making the bridge sway wildly.

The ropes were now half cut. The two youngsters dove for solid ground, landing beside Grover. The dark haired boy made a wild slash with his Celestial bronze sword and cut the remaining ropes.

The bridge fell away into the chasm, and the Cyclops howled…..with delight, because he was standing right next to them. "**Failed!**" he yelled gleefully, "**Nobody failed!**"

Grover and the buff girl tried to charge him, but the monster swatted them aside like flies.

The anger on the dark haired boy's face was clear. Strength coursed through his body, he raised his sword and attacked, forgetting that he was hopelessly outmatched. The dark haired boy jabbed the Cyclops in the belly. When the beast doubled over the boy smacked him in the nose with the hilt of his sword.

He slashed and kicked and bashed until the next thing he knew, the Cyclops was sprawled on his back, dazed and groaning. And the boy was standing above him, the tip of his sword hovering over his singular eye.

"**Uhhhhhhh**" the Cyclops groaned.

"**Percy!**" Grover gasped, "**How did you—**"

Dean suddenly wakes up from his dream wondering what the hell he just saw.

'Well that was...weird to say the least. I've never seen any of those people before...so how did they appear in my dreams?' He asked himself.

He shook off any thoughts of the dream he just had, they were probably a waste of time. He'll probably never meet any of them anyways.

He looked up as he floated in the water and noticed that quite some time had passed. It was already getting dark.

'Wow, that was a long nap' Dean thought.

"Dean!" He suddenly heard.

Dean looked to the cliff and spotted Rogue.

"What the hell are ya doing?" She asked.

"Hold on, I'll be right there!" Dean shouted as he swam towards the shore. He climbed all the way to the top.

"What's up?" He asked her.

Rogue couldn't help but blush at the sight of Dean in his underwear. "Your um..." She pointed to his clothes.

Dean looks to where she's pointing and realizes that he's still in his underwear. "Oh right, clothes" he quickly puts them back on.

Rogue relaxes, it would have been difficult to talk to Dean with a straight face while he was half naked.

"As a was saying, what the hell were ya doing?" She asked.

"Swimming" Dean answers shortly.

Rogue raises an eyebrow, "Swimming, at this time of day? she asked.

Dean scratches the back of his head, "Well I kinda fell asleep" he said sheepishly.

Rogue remained silent and eyed Dean as if she was checking if he just lied to her. It was impossible to tell with Dean.

"I guess I believe you..." She said still looking skeptical.

"Lucky me, must be my pretty face" Dean joked.

Rogue laughed and they both went back inside.

* * *

Dean sat down by his desk in his room and opened up his laptop. It had been so long since he checked his email, yet alone gone on his laptop at all.

Dean signed in to his email and found 1000+ new emails, and that's not including spam.

'Alright, let's start deleting these suckers' Dean thought as he began scrolling down. Girls…girls…..girls….'Jesus I need to stop leading them on' Dean thought, he's done that too much over the years. If Dean plans on being serious with Jean he's going to have to change his ways.

'You know what, I don't wanna look at all this' Dean thought as he deleted all his emails after making sure there was nothing important there. Dean sighs in relief that he doesn't have to look at those anymore. 'I mean I wasn't that bad to them….was I?...'

Suddenly Dean gets a new email.

Dean clicks on it. No name, no subject, not even English letters. Dean looks at it carefully and recognizes the language, ancient Greek.

It said, "**You are not alone**"

Dean didn't know what to think of this. Very few people spoke this language, let alone figured out a way to write it on their computer. Dean thought it might be a virus or something so he deleted it and shut off his computer.

* * *

Dean was walking towards the Institute with Jean next to him, talking and flirting.

"So what do you want to do today?" Jean asked.

Dean pretends to wonder, "Oh I don't know, maybe some training, maybe some relaxing…..or we could sit by the water and stare at the sunset" Dean offered.

Jean smiled, "I like that last idea"

Dean returned her smile, "I thought you might"

They finally arrive and approach the entrance.

"Hey I should check the mail" Jean said moving away from Dean and towards the mailbox. She opens the mailbox and finds a package inside. She looked at it and it had no return address or the name of the sender on it. "Huh that's weird, no name" she shook the box around to try and hear what's inside, "I wonder what it is" she said.

Dean suddenly gets curious about the package, "Let me see it one sec" he said and Jean gave it to him. Dean put his ear to the box and heard a ticking sound '…..almost like…' Dean tossed the package into the air, "Get down!" Dean yelled as he grabbed Jean and dropped to the floor.

The package exploded in the air. Nothing lethal, just a small one. Dean looks around and spots a bunch of scorched papers falling from the air. They all had the same writing, they said, "**You are not alone**" in ancient Greek.

Jean grabbed one and looked at it, "What is this?" she asked.

Dean's face grew slightly angry, "Someone's trying to mess with me, but I don't have any idea who" he said.

* * *

Everyone had gathered in the Professor's study to discuss the matter at hand.

Charles eye's the scorched piece of paper carefully, "How long has this been going on?" he asked.

"I got the email yesterday" Dean said looking a little pissed.

Charles set the paper on his desk, "Do you have any idea who would do this to you?" he asked.

"No I don't. I don't even know anybody who can speak this language yet alone figure out a way to type it on a computer" Dean said.

"What does it say?" Logan asked.

Dean sighs, "It says 'You are not alone'"

"That could mean many things" Storm said.

"Could be a stalker" Evan said.

Dean gave him a cold stare, "You know, under normal circumstances I would consider that. But I think the ancient Greek rules that out" Dean said trying to be nice.

"So is there anything we can do?" Scott asked.

"I'm afraid not Scott" Charles rolled over to Dean, "All we can do for now is wait for this 'mystery' person to contact you again" Charles rested his hand on Dean's shoulder, "Don't worry, we'll figure this out"

"I hope we do" Dean walked out with Jean.

* * *

Dean and Jean were in Dean's room. Dean tried replying before but it didn't work, there was no email to reply to.

"So how are you feeling?" Dean asked.

"I mean I'm still a little shaken up, but I wasn't hurt. I'll be ok" Jean said.

"Good, I wouldn't want you hurt because of me" Dean said holding her hand.

Jean smiled at his show of affection.

Dean goes over to his laptop and opens it up, "I just need to wait for this person to approach me again"

"Who knows how long that's going to take though" Jean said.

"I'll wait here as long as it takes" Dean said folding his arms over his chest and staring at the screen.

"Well I'll leave you to it then" Jean said as she kissed his cheek and walked out of his room.

Dean smiled.

**A couple of hours later**

Dean is seriously getting bored.

'How long is this going to take?!' Dean thought. 'Maybe I'll listen to some music while I wait' he thought as he started scrolling through his music library.

'Let's see….what to choose…I'm feeling like rock…..maybe some old school…..oh AC-DC!' Dean put on the song "_Shoot to thrill_"

Dean started rocking out to the song and grabbed the nearest thing that could resemble a guitar, which happened to be his Celestial bronze sword, and pretended it was a guitar. If the gods are watching this right now they're probably looking very confused.

Dean suddenly gets an email. Same style, ancient Greek and no name. It said "Did you like my present?"

Dean noticed that this time somehow the option to reply was available. Dean wrote back, "I wasn't impressed. Now what do you want?"

A couple of seconds later the mystery person replied, "Oh c'mon, you can at least say that you were whelmed"

'Whelmed?' Dean thought. Who says that?  
"Just tell me what you want from me you psycho" Dean said.

"I want to inform you that you're not alone" the mystery person said.

"What does that mean? Be more specific" Dean said.

"You're not the only half-blood in Bayville Dean" the mystery person said.

Dean's heart skips a beat. Who was this person? And how did they know about Dean's abilities? All this did not seem good. Also, "Not the only half-blood" means that this person is a half-blood too.

"How bout we meet face to face?" Dean wrote.

"Well I can already see your face" the mystery person said.

Dean seemed confused, did he run into this person before?

"I can see the confusion on your face, Oh don't strain that small brain of yours" the mystery person said.

Dean shot up from his chair in shock. Did this person have a camera in his room?

"The answer is right in front of you dummy" the mystery person said.

'What does he mean?' Dean thought. He looked and finally spotted it, his webcam was on. 'How did he access my webcam?'

"Why don't you show yourself coward!" Dean yelled at his computer.

"As you wish" the mystery person wrote.

A page suddenly opened up and showed a person hiding in the shadows.

"You're still hiding" Dean said.

"Did you expect me to reveal my identity right away?" the person spoke with a fake programmed voice.

Dean answers with a cold stare.

"Seems like I've struck a nerve" the mystery person said.

Dean inched closer to the laptop, "I don't know who you are or what your true intentions are but I've had enough of your games. Meet me at the Bayville high football field at midnight so we can settle this" Dean smashed his laptop into pieces. 'Didn't need that stupid thing anyways' he thought.

* * *

Jean had left Dean a couple of hours ago and she's been getting pretty bored.

Jean yawns. She looks at the time, its 11:30. 'Gosh, where did the time go?' she wondered. It was almost time for her to go to sleep, might as well check up on Dean before she does.

Jean makes her way over to Dean's room and opens the door only to find Dean crawling out of it.

Dean wore regular clothing but he had his celestial bronze blade strapped to his belt.

"What are you doing?" Jean asked.

"I'm going to find out who's been harassing me" Dean continued crawling out of the window and jumped out without saying another word. As Dean was descending from the air he suddenly stopped and was lifted back up by Jean's telekinesis. "You know, you bring a whole new meaning to possessive" Dean said.

Jean came up to the window, "I can't just let you run off to who knows where without supervision" Jean said.

"Sure you can, all you have to do is let me go" Dean said optimistically.

"No" Jean said with a stern tone, "You don't even know where to look for this person"

"I'm meeting the person for a fight now let me go" Dean said wobbling around in mid-air trying to escape her mental grasp.

"I said no" she said again with a stern tone except this time she added a stern look to go with it, "You can't just not follow the rules" Jean said sounding like a teacher's pet.

"Says who?" Dean said.

Jean couldn't comprehend that someone could be this dense, "What do you mean says who? You just can't!"

"Watch me" Dean said. He then threw his phone at her full strength making it fly like a bullet in attempt to distract her.

Jean instinctively used her telekinesis to stop it resulting in her losing control of Dean. When she looked outside again he was gone. "He can be so stubborn sometimes" Jean complained out loud. She felt no need to hold on to Dean's phone so she set it down by his windowsill.

And just as she did that Dean snatched it, "Can't forget this" he said bolting the other way.

"Hey!" Jean shouted in protest as she ran back but again she lost sight of him. Jean pouted as she returned to her room.

**At Bayville high**

Dean had made it in the nick of time, 12 o'clock on the dot. He showed up ready to face any opponent, standing in the middle of the field. The lights we're off and since there was no moon to be seen tonight it was pitch black.

Dean sniffed the air and smelled another person's scent in the air, "You can come out if you have the guts" Dean said out loud.

Suddenly the field's lights all turn on simultaneously, "I'm right here" Dean hears a voice behind him. He turns around to see who it is.

He was a teenage boy probably around his age but smaller in size. He had messy brown hair, silver gray eyes, a blue cotton t-shirt, blue jeans, and he had a scheming face that seemed he was analyzing Dean's every move. Strapped to his back was a celestial bronze staff with a leather handle in the middle for better grip and sharp tips that could be used to stab or slice. Around his waist was a belt with lots of pockets to store things in, Dean paid no attention to it.

The boy with the brown hair watched him closely.

"How did you find me?" Dean asked bluntly.

"Well I noticed some unusual activity going on here in Bayville, so I decided to investigate. Imagine my surprise to find half-bloods living here" the brown haired boy said. "As to how I found you, well I have my ways" he grinned.

"You almost blew up my girlfriend with that package of yours" Dean said staring right at him.

"Key word 'almost', I made sure not to make it too big. I had no intentions of hurting anybody, just to get your attention" he said.

"Well you have it", Dean eyes the celestial bronze staff, "So you're another half-blood then huh, who do you belong to?" he asked.

Tim smiled, "My name is Tim, I'm a son of Athena, and I wish to test my mettle against yours" He said proudly as he grabbed the bronze staff that was strapped to his back.

Dean took a good look at Tim and his weapon and laughed, "If you're going to fight me then you can at least have the decency to fight with a real weapon, not a toothpick." You could say that Dean had little faith in a staff, he favored swords.

Tim took a stance with the bronze staff and spun it around showing off his skill with it, "Don't worry, this toothpick can do plenty."

Dean took a stance of his own, "Let's see what you got then" he started with trying to close the distance between them but Tim knew beforehand he would try that so he kept his opponent at a distance with quick lunges from his staff.

Tim swung his staff in wide vertical arcs keeping a good distance between him and Dean while at the same time attacking with the bladed tip.

Dean dodged each arc with relative ease considering they weren't that fast but they did their job, keep him away.

Dean tried to attack with wide slashes but Tim's staff made it difficult to reach him. Tim would constantly attack with both sides of his staff making it twice as hard to block his attacks.

Dean jumped over a slash and went for a lunge aiming for Tim's shoulder. Tim used the momentum from his missed slash and used it to swing it around and hit Dean Midair sending him to the floor.

"You're definitely fast, you must be if you're able to dodge my attacks that easily." Tim said.

Dean gets up and notices a gash opened up by his chest, the tip must have torn through his shirt and his skin. 'Ok well that's one thing that can hurt me' he thought.

Tim continues his assault with more quick lunges and mean swings.

Dean blocks or dodges every blow and manages to catch the staff. He uses his superior strength to swing the staff, and Tim along with it, around before letting him fly into the bleachers.

"And strong too, unforeseen but manageable." He said getting back up. Tim grabbed something from his belt and threw it on the ground before exploding with thick smoke.

Immediately Dean lost sight of Tim in the smoke and held his breath in case it might be gas. Dean could hear Tim's laughing but couldn't pinpoint his exact location. Dean suddenly feels the sting of a slash by his lower back and reacts with a wide attack of his own that misses.

"You can't hit what you can't see" he hears.

Dean slashes outward wildly, "I don't need to see you!"

Dean gets cut on his thigh, "Keep telling yourself that" he hears more snickering from Tim.

Dean tries to look for him but the smoke is too thick. He gets cut by his shoulder but almost catches the staff, "Almost, keep trying though. I'm sure you'll get it eventually."

Dean is getting pissed off at this smartass kid, but he remembers his training. He closes his eyes ad uses his other senses to find his opponent. He smells his scent, he hears his footsteps moving around him, and suddenly he hears the sharp tip slice through the air coming towards him. He catches the staff and pulls it towards him drawing Tim closer so he can uppercut him in his gut "Gotcha" making him topple over in pain.

The smoke clears revealing Tim lying on the floor holding his stomach, "Ow" he said.

Dean didn't use his full strength so he doesn't permanently hurt him, so why is he still on the floor? "I didn't hit you that hard, did I?"

Tim grabs something else from his belt and throws it, "Fooled ya!"

In midair they looked like small marbles but that wasn't going to fool Dean. He immediately jumps back and shields his face from the tiny explosives that explode in the air.

He gets right back up, with nothing but small scorch marks on his forearms, not expecting Tim to pole vault using his staff to drop kick him right back down.

Dean has to admit that was a good hit, but it wasn't enough to do any permanent damage. "Alright Tim" he gets back up, "The gloves are coming off this round" he slowly approaches.

"I doubt it'll make a difference" he starts quick lunging again.

Dean dodges them and waits for the right moment to leap at full speed and grab Tim by the throat and lift him into the air with one hand. Of course Dean couldn't accomplish this without a risk of hurting himself, a long cut is opened up by his stomach.

Dean squeezes Tim's throat making him drop his weapon and try to remove his opponent's hand from his throat but it doesn't budge. He put his sword back in its scabbard with his free hand.

Dean eyeballs him carefully, "I see you're very clever Tim, your strongest muscle is your brain. That's something that not a lot of people have" he throws him hard into the bleachers once again breaking them, "But when you're facing an opponent with similar attributes" he takes the fallen staff and throws it aside, "You can't rely on it."

Tim reaches into one of his belt pockets and throws out a couple of shuriken's at Dean.

Dean was caught by surprise but managed to dodge them all except for one that sliced the side of his cheek. Dean touched the spot where the shuriken sliced his cheek but felt no blood or cut, just a small scratch. 'Must be made of some cheap material' Dean thought.

That was enough of a distraction for Tim to get his bronze staff and ready himself.

Dean slowly approached, "You know this is pointless right, you can't win" Dean said.

"Nobody's perfect, you must have a weakness somewhere" Tim said.

"Consider me the exception" Dean said arrogantly as he drew his sword once again and leaped at Tim with a wide slash.

Tim narrowly escaped being sliced in half as he jumped up into the air and threw something that looked like a grenade. It exploded right above Dean's head releasing toxic gas.

Dean immediately backed away and as he did the field's lights turned off. Under normal circumstances Dean wouldn't have much trouble adapting to the dark environment but Dean's vision started to blur, a side effect of Tim's gas.

All of a sudden a rope wraps around Dean. But before he could free himself some sort of device attaches itself to his chest and feels the shock of electricity flow through his body preventing him from tearing through the rope around him.

For a regular human this amount of electricity would have put them into shock but Dean's durable body refused to give up.

Dean see's a light orange glow coming from ahead. As it gets closer he recognizes it as Tim's bronze staff emanating its bronze light, Tim was slowly approaching.

'Come on, I gotta get free' Dean thought as he struggled.

Tim raised his bronze staff, preparing for the final blow to end the fight not Dean's life mind you. "Looks like I win" Tim said.

'COME ON!' Dean thought as he tried to free himself. Suddenly Dean's gauntlets start to glow and they absorb the electricity. Now with Dean's muscles free to do as they please, he shreds the ropes off him and knocks out Tim with one punch to the jaw, "Lights out" Dean said as Tim's lifeless body fell to the ground.

A couple of minutes later Tim opened his eyes to find himself tied up with his own rope. He looks around and spots Dean going through his things.

Dean takes a good look at Tim's ID that he found in his wallet, "Tim Lanster" he said out loud.

"The one and only" Tim joked.

"Doesn't your father own a corporation in Boston?" Dean asked recalling hearing the name in the news once or twice.

Tim looks at Dean carefully but then speaks, "Yup" Tim said unafraid.

Dean continues to look through Tim's pocketed belt, "You've got quite an arsenal here, did your dad build it for you?" He joked.

Tim smiled, "I'm a son of Athena, I'm smart in more ways than one" he boasted. "So who do you belong to Dean?" Tim asked.

"To tell you the truth I don't _belong_ to anybody" Dean said.

Tim looked confused, "What do you mean? How can you not have a god parent and be a half-blood?" He asked.

"My abilities are genetic" Dean said not trusting him with the full truth yet.

"Oh ok" Tim said assuming maybe one of his grandparents was a god. "So, now that we know each other, what are you going to do?" He asked.

Dean put everything back in their pockets where they belong and set the belt down on the floor.

"Now that's the question" Dean said. "You obviously don't want to kill me, which is good for you" Dean turned around and walked over to where he left his sword. "And you've done nothing wrong, besides almost hurting my girlfriend" Dean strapped his sword to his belt, "So I guess I'll let you go" Dean turned around to face Tim but he was already gone. The rope he was tied with was cut and his weapon and equipment were all gone. "That little sneak" Dean said looking around trying to find him.

Dean suddenly gets a text message. He checks his phone and it said, "Thanks for letting me go :), I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again. And don't forget, we're not the only half-bloods in Bayville"

'So there are others too...' Dean thought. Where could they be hiding?

Dean's common sense kicks in and remembers how late it is, he should get home right away.

**At the institute**

Dean climbed back in his window quietly trying not to wake anybody up when the lights turn on in his room. He looks around and spots Logan with his arms crossed.

Dean laughs sheepishly, "Um, hey?"

"Downstairs, now" Logan said walking out.

Dean wills himself to walk some more, his body is trashed. And now he'll never get any sleep.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

_Family time_

**At the Institute**

Today was Saturday. It was still spring break so all of the X-men were enjoying that a lot. Last night Logan had a talk with him about his late hours.

**Flashback**

Dean was sitting in the Professor's office with him staring holes in his head.

"You can't just leave in the middle of the night without saying anything" Charles told him.

"Why not?" Dean asked.

"Because if you're going to be living under our roof then you must obey the rules I have set for you" Charles said.

"Yes I remember what you told me when I first got here about the rules, and I knew this would come up at some point" Dean said, "I needed to go and handle it myself, it was my fight"

"That may be true but you could have been hurt or worse, you should have asked the team to accompany you" Charles said.

"I won't drag my friends into my own problems, I refuse to" Dean said meaning every word.

"That is very admirable of you" Charles admitted, "And I commend that, but that still doesn't make it right to leave after hours without notice" Charles could tell by Dean's face that this is something he did not want to hear, and for good reason.

Dean is used to doing things unannounced all the time back home, it's a part of who he is and the environment that he's used to. He might act like a regular teenager most of the time with the rest of the X-men but Charles has noticed something else. A sort of maturity that is hidden behind Dean's teenage behavior that he doesn't show very often. He showed it when Mystique kidnapped his mother and chose to act on his own and fight his own battle, and surprisingly he handled it perfectly, or at least it turned out perfect. Also from what Charles has seen and heard from Dean's training and battles he's a very tactical fighter and is wiser than his age would predict. But nonetheless a wild card that cannot be controlled as easily as the rest.

"I know what you're thinking, that this feels like I'm lecturing you like a child. Your mother told me of your behavior and that I shouldn't think of it as disobedience, which I do not." Charles said.

"So she told you of how many times I left the house unannounced?" Dean asked.

"Yes she did, thoroughly" Charles smiles at the thought of the memory, "So I understand why you ten to go off alone. But you must understand that I cannot bend the rules for one student, that wouldn't be fair. Right?"

"Yes" Dean admitted.

"So I must insist that you do not do this again" Charles said with a stern face.

"You mean leaving in general or not telling anybody about it?" Dean asked.

"Somehow I think that no matter what rule or punishment I give you, you would still leave the mansion in the middle of the night on some wild goose chase. So you must at least tell one person so I know in case you've been out for too long" Charles said.

Dean analyzed his situation, "I think that's fair. But just out of curiosity, what kind of punishment would you give me if I broke any more rules?" Dean asked trying his best not to sound eager to do so.

Charles smiled, "My tolerance for your behavior is not withstanding, continue to do so and you will spend the rest of your days under the belief you're a six year old girl"

Dean raises an eyebrow, "You'd do that?"

"I'd have Kitty braid your hair, now go to bed. You need your rest" Charles said.

**End flashback**

Dean wasn't here today. He said something about needing to go to church for Easter or something like that. And it seemed that his presence left quite a gap in the energy that went around the mansion.

Whenever he wasn't training his muscles to their limits he was always going around the house looking for a way to converse with everyone, or at least almost everyone. He never really spent much time with Scott, they didn't seem to get along at all.

Most out of all, Jean had Dean on her mind the most. They had gone on a couple of dates so far and Jean had to admit that Dean was being surprisingly respectful. She expected him to be nagging her to move farther and faster in their relationship, but he's not. Dean understands that Jean is relatively new to this and she's not one to just "give it up" as some would say so there's going to be a little wait.

In the meantime Jean tries to calm her thoughts by texting Dean.

"Hey! :)" she sent him.

She waited a few minutes and he finally replied, "Hey ;) wats up, you miss me?"

"Actually, me and everyone else do. It's been kind of boring without you"

"Figures :p lol"

"Lol :p, so when r u coming back?"

"I should be back on monday"

That is not what Jean wanted to hear, "Why monday? I thought it was just for today?"

"Didn't I tell you that on sunday my family is having a bbq?"

"No you forgot to mention that"

"Whoops :D"

"Damn, I was hoping we could go out 2morow"

"Hmmmm... I got an idea. Why don't you and everyone else come to my house for some bbq?"

"Are you sure you can fit all of us?"

"Trust me, we got this ;)"

'Why not?' Jean thought. It could be fun.

"Ok then we'll be there 2morow"

* * *

The next day the X-men were dropped off with the X-jet and were standing right outside Dean's house.

"So who's going to ring the doorbell?" Evan asked waiting for someone to do it.

"I'll do it" Jean said stepping forward, after all she has been here before.

After she rings the doorbell about two seconds later Dean opens the door, "Hey you made it" he greeted them all, "come inside"

When they came inside the house they were surprised to find the place already filled with lots of people.

"How many people do you have here?" Kitty asked in shock.

"Should be 30+ people, I never bothered to count my whole family" Dean said wondering.

"Ya _whole_ family?" Rogue asked.

"Yup" Dean replied, "All my uncles and cousins and siblings and nephews and nieces" That was a long list.

"How are you going to feed all these people?" Kurt asked worried he might not get any.

"Well let me show you our roof" Dean said.

He brought them upstairs to the roof where his father was on a giant grill grilling up a ton of food, "Who wants burgers and hot dogs?" he said with a smile.

Everyone grabbed dishes and buns and formed a line. They must have ate enough food to last those three days because when they were done they felt like they were going to explode. Cheeseburgers, hot dogs, BBQ chicken, ribs, and a whole lot of homemade Greek food (courtesy of Dean's mom), they even cooked a whole lamb on a rotisserie.

After they finished eating they went around the house talking and greeting the various family members of the house.

Rogue was especially uncomfortable because she was surrounded by people she could kill in an instant with nothing but a simple touch.

Rogue would kill herself if she had an accident here in Dean's home. The others seemed to be having a great time too, she would hate to ruin it for them. She would have preferred to sit alone with Dean where there would be no one to worry about but she doesn't want to bother him with her problems.

All of a sudden she is approached by a short beautiful brown haired lady in a red dress, or at least short compared to everyone else in Dean's family. "What's the matter honey you look stressed?" She said noticing Rogue's sad face.

"Am ok, it's just really crowded in here" Rogue said taking a deep breath.

"Well when you live in a family as big as this you learn to get used to it" The lady said sipping a drink she had. She noticed something in Rogue's hair, "Hold still one second" she reached over with her hand.

"Wait no don't touch me" Rogue backed away.

The lady gave Rogue a smile, "It's ok honey, I know about your power."

Rogue was surprised to hear that, "You what?"

"Dean wanted to make sure you all had a nice time today, so he told us all about you earlier." The lady said.

"And ya not one bit freaked out?" Rogue asked.

"Listen, when you have a baby brother that can toss you around like a ragdoll you stop being surprised at things." The lady said.

Rogue was happy about that but still curious about something else, "But why would he go through all the trouble of revealing us?"

The lady took Rogue's gloved hand in her own, "Because he wanted you all to be comfortable here, you especially."

Rogue is touched anybody would do something like that for her.

"Uncle Dean!" they hear behind them. Both ladies look back and see three small children around Dean.

"Uncle Dean! Take us for a ride!" two children attached themselves to his legs while the third one went on Dean's back.

"Whoa easy, get off me!" he joked but the children stayed on him. Dean started walking around with them on him. He looks over to Rogue and flashes her a smile which lightens up Rogue's mood further.

"He can be royal pain in the heel but he's sweet" The lady said looking at him play with the children, especially when one of them is hers.

"I'm sorry but ah never caught ya name" Rogue said.

"Oh I'm Chris, Dean's sister" She said offering her a hand.

Rogue gladly takes it, "Oh it's a pleasure to meet you"

Dean kept on walking around with the children still attached to him. Jean laughed at the sight of it.

"You think this is funny?" he asked her.

"Actually yes, I do" she said giggling.

"Kosta! Come and help me with the dessert!" his mother shouted from the kitchen.

"Coming Ma! Alright guys, fun time is over" Dean tells his niece and nephews.

The children let go off him, "Aw" they complained.

Dean was about to go help his mother when he was stopped by an invisible force, "Wait a second, what did your mother just call you?" Jean asked stopping him.

"Um, nothing" he goes to leave again but once again is stopped by and invisible force.

"No, I want to hear this" she said standing right next to him.

Dean sighs, "Alright fine. She called me Kosta because it's short for my name."

Jean was confused, "How is Kosta short for Dean?"

"It's not. It's short for Konstantine, I just prefer Dean" he admitted.

Jean was genuinely surprised, "Why didn't you tell me your name was Konstantine?" she asked.

"Because it sounds dorky, now I'm busy" he runs off to help his mother.

After Dean left one of the children that he was playing with approached Jean, "Hi" the little boy said to her.

"Hi there! What's your name?" she asked him.

"I'm Louie" he said, "What's your name?"

"My name is Jean" she said with a smile.

"Oh like jeans?" he said pointing to the jeans he was wearing.

Jean laughed, "Yeah like that"

"You have a funny name" Little Louie said.

"Well you have a funny face" she said jokingly pinching his cheek.

The little boy giggled, "You're pretty, will you be my girlfriend?" he asked.

Jean giggled, "Sure I will"

"Ok" Little Louie kissed her on the lips and then he ran away.

'Oh my god, how early do they teach them?' she thought.

"Ah, young love" Kurt said adoring that moment.

"Not. One. Word." Jean said.

"Only of you do a little kissy kissy with me" he pressed his lips together and inched closer.

All of a sudden he is picked up from the back of his shirt by Dean, "Kurt, what are you doing?"

"Leaving?" He suggested.

"Good" Dean let him go.

**Somewhere near the small community of Elkford**

X-24 was running as fast as he could from his pursuer, Sabertooth. He was the only one that could keep up with him, but still not good enough.

X-24 had run away from his master and creator, he hated his life there with the rest of the "freaks", anything was better than getting almost beat to death by two or three people no matter how fun the fighting and the blood is to X-24. His only problem is his consistent follower, how is he going to lose him?

His thoughts are interrupted by the sight of a man in red armor descending from the air. X-24 readies himself for an attack.

"There is no need for violence my friend, I'm not here to hurt you" he said.

X-24 gets closer and smells him, no fear? "What do you want?"

"I merely want to liberate you from those who oppress you, you do want to be free don't you?" he asked.

"You can help me?" X-24 asked.

"Yes, but in order for me to help you, you must pledge your allegiance to me" he said.

X-24 snorts, "Sounds like the same thing to me"

"Think of it as an improvement from what you have now, of course if you don't like it I could simply leave you alone with that explosive in your head." He said.

X-24's eyes widen, "Explosive?" he asked.

"Why yes, how else do you think they would control you? And if that thing goes off it will kill you. Now you have to choose between certain death or life with 'some' rules, choose now."

X-24 doesn't really have much of a choice here if he wants to live, and he's certain the man isn't lying; he would know.

"All you have to do is obey my orders, get to have some fun on the side and I'll remove the device in your head. But if you double cross me I will end you" he brings his hand out, "Do we have a deal?"

He looks at the red man's hand and shakes it with his own, "Yes"

"Good, now let's get rid of this explosive" he waved his hand and immediately X-24 felt incredible pain inside his skull. A second later something shot out of his skull and his lifeless body dropped to the floor.

The man in the red armor levitates the device higher and crushes it resulting in a mini explosion that could probably be heard for miles.

He looks back at X-24 and sees the wound on his head slowly heal until there's no sign left of the wound, a second later he gets back up holding his head, "That hurt"

The man in the red armor smiled, "Now then, what is your name?"

X-24 thinks, he doesn't have a real name. And he hates the one he has, the only thing he can think of is what Lady Deathstrike calls him. He'll just go with that, "Daken"

* * *

Once again the X-men were ill prepared for the meals they ate. It wasn't enough that they ate tons of food, but then Dean had lots of delicious desserts to go around after. The majority of the people that were there had left by now and since they had a jet on speed dial they were in no rush to leave.

"My stomach is stuffed to de maximum" Kurt said sitting down on the couch along with the rest of the x-men.

"I don't wanna move for an hour" Scott said.

"I'm probably going to gain weight from this" Kitty complained.

"At least ya can phase it out of ya, I gotta do it the old fashioned way" Rogue said holding her own stomach.

"Am I the only one who's ok?" Dean walks in.

"What are you man?" Evan asked, "How can you eat that much and still walk around like it's nothing?"

"Maybe because it really is nothing to me" Dean admitted.

"But still, how do your parents cook so well? It's like they put their very soul into their food" Jean said speaking very highly of his parents' cooking.

"They both learned from the best of the best" Dean said proudly, "I'll give you guys a few minutes to relax" Dean went in his old room.

He didn't get a chance to take a real good look at his room since he was here. He looks back at all the fun memories that hang on his wall in pictures. He looked back at all the people he met and what he's been through so far and he knows that all of that will be trumped in the future, somehow.

He looks at a picture that his dad took when he was nine of him lifting 150 pounds and by the looks of it Dean was struggling. That put a smile on his face, the proud look his father gave him when he did that was indescribable.

He looks at another picture of him when he was about ten and he was hugging his mother and lifting her up at the same time.

Another one was Dean standing in an octagon wearing nothing but shorts and a mask with his father. Dean was a little bloodied up but he was raising his champion belt high in the air in triumph.

Some really fun memories, ones he won't forget.

**Somewhere near the small community of Elkford**

Sabertooth returned to the underground base, empty handed. Magneto had told him what he had done to the boy and advised him to stay quiet about it, which he would. Sabertooth wouldn't dare disobey Magneto, and serves the Professor right for trying to improve what was already perfect.

The metal doors slide open and he walks in to an agitated Professor, "So, what happened?" the Professor asked.

"He's dead" he said plainly.

"What?! What did you do?!" he asked in rage.

"He tried to remove the device from his brain and it exploded when it was still inside, blew him to pieces."

The Professor sighs, "Alright then, what's done is done. The experiment was successful, now all we need is the final piece to solve the puzzle…..the Hulk!"

* * *

While Dean was off doing who knows what the rest of the x-men were in the living room with Dean's mother listening to stories of Dean's childhood.

"He was the wildest child I've ever seen, if you told him to do something he would do the opposite" His mother was getting a reaction out of everyone. "I could never go out, whenever I took his for a walk with his stroller and I stopped to look at something he would stand up and carry the stroller on his back while he walked away."

Everyone started laughing at the image of Dean doing that, it sounded like something he would do.

"What else did he do?" Jean was very interested in this conversation.

"He would break things all the time, he couldn't always control his strength." His mother admitted. "But it was a wonder nonetheless, he started doing pulls ups from a clothes line as a toddler."

"Wow" Evan said, that was quite a feat.

"But through all the trouble he put me through he was the cutest thing you ever saw" His mother admitted.

All the girls awed while the boys said nothing. And right then and there Dean came in and sat down right next to his mother.

"All the girls wanted to hold him, and he was always so forward with them all." His mother said.

"Well that's not surprising" Kitty said.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Dean said leaning back on the couch.

"Did he get inta a lot a fights?" Rogue asked.

"Oh lord, I lost count" His mother said, "He punched another boy in the first grade and almost got left back"

"He was making fun of me" Dean defended himself.

They all laughed.

"You were always getting yourself into trouble whether it was by hurting yourself or others" His mother told him.

"No I didn't" Dean said.

"Remember the time you got electrocuted?" she asked.

"Yeah, my hair stood on end" Dean said.

"Or the time you were riding your bike and you rammed into a tree, and broke the tree, with your head?" she asked.

"I had a bruise on my head for a week" Dean admitted.

"How about the time you fell on the glass table and shattered it into a million pieces?" she asked.

"I didn't have a scratch on me" Dean laughed.

"What about the time you went up to that mean dog across the street?" she asked.

"It bit me, so I started chasing it with a baseball bat" Dean smiled.

"The problem was you were never afraid of anything, so you didn't know what to look out for" His mother told him.

"He might still have that problem" Kitty teased him.

"And you might have a shopping problem" Dean teased her.

Kitty took offense to that, "No I don't"

"Yeah that's why you've shopped 2 times in the last four days." Dean said.

"Shut up, I have needs" Kitty said.

Everyone shared a laugh.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

_The King of Thieves_

**In the Streets of Bayville**

Kurt was enjoying a beautiful day after eating some burger bombs from his favorite burger joint. Something that Kurt will never get tired of are those burgers, he loves them.

As Kurt is walking he hears some commotion in an alley, he takes a peek to investigate.

"Get him!" some guy said. Kurt spots a bunch of crooks surrounding a kid about his age with blonde hair holding a bag.

"Don't let him get away!" another one yelled.

Two guys hold him as another one goes to strike him, "Oh, not the face" the teen pleaded but sadly he got hit right in the face. Another guy gives him a right hook to the jaw and then another one knees him in the stomach.

"Hand it over!" one of them yelled.

Kurt figured these lowlifes were trying to rob this poor kid, and he needed help badly. But does Kurt want to risk getting in trouble?

"Watch his arms and his feet!" another one yelled, they finally managed to grab a hold on that bag the teen was holding.

Kurt decided that this was worth the trouble, but he would have to be discreet with his powers.

Kurt ran forward and jump kicked one of the guys who were holding the bag in the face. Then as Kurt lands on the ground he uses his superb agility to jump over the other one and punch him in the back of the head resulting in him dropping the bag.

The other three guys that were still with the teen noticed this, "Hey hold still" one of them told the teen as he held him.

"You know, you really don't want to do this" Kurt said, "So why don't you just let him go, huh?"

"Because he's still breathing" one of them replied.

"Yeah well, I think he'd like to keep it that way. Don't you?" Kurt asked mocking him.

"Wise guy!" one of them yelled as three crooks charge him.

Kurt hears the one behind him coming and jumps over him with a split kicking the other two simultaneously and elbows the third one in the face.

The remaining two are distracted enough for the blonde teen to give a left hook to one of them and somehow instinctively dodge the right hook from the other one with incredible ease. He then replies with a good one two combination to the remaining one with incredible speed.

Kurt sees that the blonde teen can take care of himself and focuses on the two that are charging him. Kurt simply jumps over both of them and knocks their heads together really hard. When Kurt turns around he finds the blonde teen standing over three crooks lying on the floor.

Kurt gives him a look like 'How did you do that?'

The blonde teen replies with a cocky grin.

The five crooks pick themselves up and run away.

The blonde teen approaches Kurt and laughs, "Not that I couldn't have handled them myself, but thank you."

"It's a little early in the day for highway robbery, isn't it?" Kurt asked sarcastically.

"Oh, not at all" he replied "I try to start every day with a healthy dose of excitement." He picked up the bag he was carrying before.

"Billy is my name" he gives him his hand.

"Kurt" he replied accepting his hand.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Billy asked.

Kurt scratched the back of his head, "Well I've picked up a few things from here and there."All of a sudden they hear police sirens approaching, "Well it looks like the police might catch those thieves."

"Indeed" Billy said while thinking, he puts his hand in his bag and pulls out a pouch that he puts in his pocket.

A police car parks at the beginning of the alley.

"I guess we can just tell them what happened." Kurt said.

"What do you mean 'we'?" Billy asked tossing him his bag, "You got me out of trouble. I'm sure you can do the same for yourself." In a blink of an eye he was gone.

Two police officers come up to Kurt, "Freeze!" they hold their guns up at him, "Where are your partners?"

Kurt would really want to just teleport out of there but they've already seen his face, "I don't know what you're talking about." Because honestly Kurt had no clue as to what just happened.

"My-"Kurt looks inside the bag he's holding and drops it from the surprise of what he sees; when the bag lands on the ground loads of cash fall out of the bag.

"Oh, no no no no no no no" Kurt starts freaking out, "I was just-"

"Tell it to the judge, you're under arrest." The officer told him.

"What for?" Kurt asked.

"You're standing on it" the officer said.

'Oh man, the professor is gonna kill me' Kurt thought to himself.

* * *

The Professor had a feeling to explore the mansion today, to see what his student's are up to.

He checked the living room where Kitty and Evan were watching TV, he passed by the kitchen where Scott was watching something else, Rogue was reading a book in her room, and Dean and Jean were sitting outside. But Kurt was nowhere to be found in the house, he even checked with his mind to be sure.

The Professor rolls outside to where Dean and Jean were sitting by the edge that overlooks the ocean. He saw those two sharing laughs and having a good time, could it be that they were together? Possibly.

"I'm sorry to interrupt "the Professor said cutting in to their conversation.

Both Dean and Jean turn their heads to face him, "No, it's ok Professor. Is everything ok?" Dean asked.

"Well, Kurt hasn't come back home from school yet, and I was wondering if you knew anything about it." he asked.

"I remember he told us that he was going to get something to eat before coming home, but he would have come back by now." Jean said.

The Professor thinks, "I will locate him using Cerebro, it's not like him to be this late." He said rolling away.

As the Professor comes in the house he hears the house phone ring and picks it up, "Hello?" he answered.

The Professor's eyes widen from what he hears.

* * *

Kurt had been sitting in his jail cell for a couple of hours now, thinking about what he'd done wrong.

Should he have not gotten involved to begin with? Would it have been better off not to have felt remorse for Billy? Or should he have simply left after the good deed was done?

All questions that don't have a simple answer.

"Hey kid!" Kurt hears all of a sudden. He looks up at the guard that called him, "You got visitors", the X-men and Professor X come in, "Make it quick" the guard left.

Kurt gets up from where he's sitting and runs to the bars of the jail cell, "Professor! I swear I didn't do anything" Kurt pleaded.

"It's alright, Kurt" the Professor said calmly, "Just tell me exactly what happened."

Kurt goes through the story from beginning to end.

The Professor raised an eyebrow, "Vanished?" he asked.

"Ja, into thin air" Kurt replied.

"Another mutant?" Scott suggested quietly so the guard doesn't hear him.

"Perhaps," The Professor said, "but it would be better if I saw for myself" he comes closer to where Kurt is standing, "Show me what happened Kurt"

Kurt focuses on the memory and plays through it from the beginning. When he first spotted Billy, when he jumped in to fight, and when Billy made his escape.

Charles focuses on the moment Billy escaped, and he sees what Kurt was talking about when he said vanished. Charles see's it in slow motion and realizes that this boy didn't simply vanish into thin air, he ran at super speed.

"It seems that this Billy can run at incredible speeds, that's why in your eyes he vanished." The Professor said.

"So he's like Pietro?" Dean asked.

"It's impossible to say, he could definitely keep up with him but Billy's limitations are yet unknown." The Professor said, "But right now we have to worry about Kurt's condition. I'll be right back, I'll go have a word with the police; the rest of you stay here." He left.

Kurt pouts, "Why me? I didn't even do anything"

"Hey how do you think I felt when Pietro set me up bro?" Evan said recalling his old encounter with his rival.

"Yeah, but don't sweat it. The Professor will have you out of here in no time." Scott said.

"Even though he hates abusing his powers" Jean reminds them.

"Powers or not, we can't just let Kurt stay here." Rogue argued.

"Rogue you know that's not what I meant" Jean said.

"Yeah, but ya implied it"

"No I didn't!"

"Yes ya did!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Dean steps in between them, "Ladies, can we please take a step back and take a deep breath before the fist fighting starts?"

Jean and Rogue move away from each other and fold their hands over their chests in a similar pissed off fashion.

Dean goes up to Kurt, "Now Kurt, can you describe to me exactly what he looked like?"

"Um, sure" Kurt doesn't understand why Dean would wanna now this but whatever, "He had curly blonde hair that came down to his neck and blue eyes. He was about my height, wearing a short sleeved plaid purple and black button down over a black tank top, black leather pants, and these worn out purple sneakers; and he had this really big cocky vibe coming from him."

Dean gets a good image of Billy, "Alright, I'll make sure to keep an eye out for him."

The Professor comes back in, "Well it seems that I've convinced them to release you from custody" he gives them a look saying it wasn't optional.

"Thanks a million Professor" Kurt said.

"Just try to stay out of trouble Kurt; we don't need this kind of attention." He replied.

* * *

The Professor had been searching for a week now and had found no trace of this mutant on Cerebro. He didn't understand why he couldn't find him, it made no sense.

Dean had also kept his eye out for Billy on the streets but no sign of him. He went to the dangerous parts of Bayville and asked around for him but nothing; everybody would just play dumb and say they never heard of him, even though he could smell they were lying he wasn't going to obsess over this but he was interested in finding this kid. Even on his birthday that passed a few days ago he went out lookin for him a little.

Right now, Dean was experimenting with his Celestial Bronze sword. He was testing if it was sharp or maybe it was unbalanced or even its condition, but it checked out and seems like its fit for battle as some would say.

He was training with it outside by the woods when Jean came by, "Hey"

"Hey" he replied, "Any progress yet?" he asked.

"No, nothing yet. There's still no sign of him anywhere." She said.

He stops what he's doing, "Why can't Cerebro find him?"

"I really have no idea. Cerebro should be able to find any mutant on the planet." She said.

Dean sat there thinking for a second, he noticed the sun slowly setting "I think I'm gonna go out one more time before I give up the search for this guy. I'll see you later, ok?"

"Ok, be careful" she said giving him a hug before she left.

"I will" he said, "but what hope do I have to find a mutant that can't be found even by using Cerebro?"

"**_That's because he's not a mutant, boy_**" Dean suddenly heard Zeus's voice in his head.

"Well hello to you too. And if he's not a mutant then what is he?" Dean asked out loud.

"**_He is a half-blood_**" Zeus said plainly.

That statement shocked Dean, finally somebody else that is like him; well sort of. "Who does he belong to?"

"**_He is a son of Hermes, one that has managed to survive on his own._**"

The Hermes part is no surprise, but that last part confused Dean, "Ok last time I checked it wasn't that hard to survive in the 21st century."

"**_You misunderstand because you do not share the burden of a normal half-blood. The blood of the ancients that flow through your veins is very faint and almost undetectable to monsters._**"

"So what you're saying is, if I was a normal demigod, I would have been attacked by monsters from a young age?"

"**_Precisely, other half-bloods aren't as lucky as you and most don't survive on their own._**"

'Damn, that sounds so sad' "So is there like a place where half-bloods go to survive?"

He chuckles, "**_Perhaps….but that is something you must find on your own_**"

"Great, another mystery for me to solve." He sighs, "Ok that topic aside, how do I find Billy?"

"**_Use your knowledge and you will find him…_**" the voice left.

He pinches the bridge of his nose, 'More riddles…awesome, just what I needed' he walks away from the woods and towards the garage to get his motorcycle but he notices that he's still holding his bronze sword, 'Wait a sec…..that thing that he mentioned last time, Ummmm…the mist! Yeah that's what it was; supposedly mortals don't really see things like this blade. So if I go around holding this and I notice someone who can spot it maybe that could be Billy.' It was a long shot but it was something.

He thinks back and notices how Logan never even spotted the thing when he first came through the portal, Rogue didn't seem to see it when he was outside with her, and Jean would have at least commented on it when she saw him a few minutes ago using it. Maybe this plan will work after all.

Dean goes in his room, puts the bronze sword in its scabbard that he made for it and puts it on his belt before taking off.

* * *

Dean had ridden into town and no one paid any attention to the bronze sword strapped to his belt, it was like it was invisible to everyone.

He'd left his bike a while back to go on foot to search a little better.

For a good three hours he roamed the dark streets finding nothing and nobody that could possibly give him any clues.

He finally takes a seat by the sidewalk to sit down and think, 'What am I doing wrong? I've looked everywhere….' He takes out his silver cross from inside his shirt and looks at it, 'What am I missing?' he thought to himself.

Dean closes his eyes and listens. He rules out all the unwanted noises, the people, the cars, everything to the point where he can clearly hear his own heartbeat.

Dean's hearing picks up on something that sounds very similar to what Pietro sounds like when he runs, "Swoosh!" he saw something from the corner of his eye go into an alley across the street.

'Did I just see what I think I saw?' he thought to himself. He came closer, close enough so he could hear a conversation in the alley.

"Some guy's been lookin for you Billy" he hears a kid's voice that he's heard before, probably one that he asked Billy about.

"Oh yeah, what's he want?" Dean assumes that is the famous Billy that set up Kurt.

"He didn't say" the kid replied.

"Well he won't be finding me anytime soon. Anyways thanks for the heads up kid, I appreciate it" Billy runs out of the alley and turns left only to stop in his tracks from a hulking mass of a guy that's in front of him.

Billy looks up at Dean's face and notices an agitated look, he clears his throat "Um, excuse me" he goes to move around him but is stopped by a bronze sword in his path. He takes a good look at it and can clearly see that it is a Greek celestial bronze weapon confirming that this guy definitely is who Dean is looking for.

"You're not going anywhere Billy" Dean said with a grin.

Billy slowly backs up from the blade to get some breathing space, "Ah so you're the one who's been looking for me."

"Indeed" Dean shoved the sword back in his face to keep him from running, "I've heard of you Billy, son of Hermes.

"So you've heard of me?" Billy said in amusement.

"Not before a few days ago. Now I believe you stole something that doesn't belong to you." Dean said.

"Rumor and innuendo" he goes to run but Dean grabs him by the shirt and pins him to the wall. "What was your name again my fellow half-blood?"

"I never gave it. Now, I want to know why you set up my friend Kurt." Dean asked bringing his blade to Billy's neck.

"I didn't plan it that way; I thought he could take care of himself." Billy said, "If you'd seen how he wiped out—"

"Save your breath. Tell me what happened from the beginning." Dean said.

"Can you please get this thing off my neck first?" Billy said referring to the bronze blade at his throat. Dean obliges and puts it back in its scabbard. "Good, now it all started when these guys came lookin for me to do a job at the Bayville bank. They needed someone very fast so they chose me, the King of thieves." He said with pride.

Dean raised an eyebrow, "The King of thieves? You know what, whatever just go on."

"We did the job and we got loads of cash from it and we were home free when they decided to double cross me to get a bigger share for themselves, that's when your friend showed up and helped me. I didn't have enough time to bring everything with me so I left the majority with Kurt and took a little for myself."

Dean put him down, "You know it's a shame how you put your abilities to such a poor use, you could do so much more with them."

"Yeah well, that's my decision to make and yours to regret" he speeds up and gains some distance between him.

Dean throws his hand out one second too late, 'Shit, I should have never let him down'

"Now let's see what you got" he sped up and ended up behind him, "Hmmm, this looks like it could get me a couple of bucks, don't you think?"

Dean turns around and sees his silver cross and chain in his hand. He feels around his neck to make sure it's gone, and it is. "Give that back, now" he drew his sword and glared at him.

Billy made a face like he was thinking about it, "Hmmm, no I think I'll keep it. And let's see if you have anything else."

He goes to do the same thing but this time Dean is ready and slashes outward resulting in Billy moving away from him.

"You're actually pretty fast, but not as fast as me"

Dean lunged at him but Billy was too fast and ran around him.

"Well it's been fun getting to know you and all, even though I don't know your name, but I gotta go; things to do, people to see, money to steal, smell ya later" he zipped off.

Dean threw a fist at the last second that hit the brick wall breaking it, 'That was a stupid amateur move! I should have never given him the chance to run away!' Dean thought to himself. 'And now he has the cross that Dad got me too, this is great!' he punched the brick wall again making a second hole. 'Oh he is so dead when I catch him'

"But how do I find him now, I have no idea where to look. Especially now that he knows my face he'll stay far away from me," he looks in the alley to see if that other kid Billy was talking to earlier was still there but no, he probably bailed when he saw Billy in trouble, "And that brings me back to square one, no leads as to where I can find him."

Dean takes a deep breath to hopefully relax him but he noticed something, he sniffed the air a bit. He had a scent, Billy's scent. When he had Billy pinned to the wall he got a good smell of him without really realizing it could be helpful. He followed the scent a little and it led to the direction that Billy ran in. "Looks like my luck is changing" he ran off in that direction.

* * *

Jean was worried about her new boyfriend. He had been gone for hours and it was almost midnight.

Even though she knows that Dean is tough as nails, he's not invincible.

Jean makes her way to the study, where the Professor currently is, and enters unannounced with a worried face.

"Ah, Jean. Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Um….well, it's Dean. He went out earlier to go look for that kid Billy again and he hasn't come back yet. I'm worried Professor."

He looks at the time and notices it's almost midnight. Now Charles knows from Dean's parents that he's known to stay out late from time to time, but now he's involved with a possibly dangerous mutant. "Alright Jean, I'll handle this. But the time is very late; I would like you to get some rest. I will inform you when he returns."

"Thank you Professor and goodnight" she said exiting.

"Goodnight" the Professor replied

Charles looks for Logan and finds him in the danger room repairing some of the equipment.

"Logan, do you have a moment?" Charles asked.

"Yeah, what is it Chuck?" Logan said.

"I believe that Dean hasn't returned from his search for the thief tonight, I would like you to go out and look for him, we don't want him getting into any trouble."

Logan stops what he's doing, "If it's one thing he'll do, that's get himself into trouble."


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

_The silent crime wave_

Dean followed Billy's scent to an abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere.

'Looks like it's one that's really old and forgotten' He thought, 'Perfect place for a hideout'

He snuck in through one of the windows but didn't find much when he went inside, nothing but really old boxes and shipping equipment. 'This can't be it could it?'

He listens carefully with his ears, and hears some kind of noise coming from underground. Dean follows the noise to where it's coming from, he plows through some boxes and finds a steel door.

Dean goes up to it and tries to open it but it's locked.

All of a sudden a gap in the door slides open revealing someone's eyes, "What's the password?"

"The password?" Dean asked.

"Yeah you know the password to get in?"

"Oh, that one um…" he thinks hard but can't really think of anything solid, "Billy rules?"

"Nope, sorry guy. Maybe next time." He closes the gap.

That aggravates Dean; "I don't have time for this" he kicks in the steel door smashing it open. Dean looks behind the door to find an unconscious teenager, "Whoops, too much power" he continued down the stairs.

He reached the bottom of the staircase and entered an area that he did not expect. He saw an area filled with lots of teenagers literally doing whatever they wanted. There were pool tables, poker tables, various different arcade machines, a couple of skate courses, a DJ playing music with humongous speakers and there was graffiti all over the walls. There were kids smoking, gambling, drinking, doing all kinds of things parents always told you not to do.

"Hey man you new here?" some guy asked him.

"Uh yeah, I'm new here." Dean replied still amazed at the peculiar sight he's looking at.

"Alright well check it out man, anything you want, we got. Anything you wanna do, do it. You know what I'm saying? Anything" he said.

"Gotcha man, good lookin out" Dean fist bumped him.

He walked around a little still getting the feel for this place.

He passed by this one kid that was playing pool and smoking a cigar.

Then he passed by this group of kids that by the looks of it was playing poker, with real money. "Read 'em and weep boys full house" one of them said revealing his hand, the rest of them pounded the table in anger. All of a sudden while he was watching them some guy running fast bumped into him, he looked down and saw a fairly young kid and looked afraid of Dean.

Dean smiled at him, "Go, play" he let the kid go.

Dean kept on looking around; he occasionally spotted TV's, stereos, cell phones, mp3's, and various other electronic devices. 'Why do I get the feeling all this stuff is stolen?' he thought to himself.

Dean finds his way into a wide room with high up seats as if to watch a spectacle, currently filled lots of other talking teens. He walks around in it a little, 'I wonder what this room is for?'

"Well, look who it is!" Dean hears at the end of the room.

Everyone in the room gets out of the way, at the end of the room Dean could see two figures.

One of the two was Billy who was standing on the right, presumably who recognized him.

The man who was sitting on a throne (or at least what looked like a throne) in the middle was weird looking. His skin looked like it was made of tar, his hair was red, he wore a black outfit to match his skin, a long purple over coat that went down to his knees, and purple gloves.

Dean walks towards them, "What happened king of thieves? I thought you were in charge here?" He mocks him.

Billy didn't seem too happy about the way he said that, "Sometimes things work out that way" he speeds over to him, "The real question is how you found me?"

"You're too easy you know that? I thought maybe the king of thieves would be harder to find. But you did leave quite a trail" Dean said mocking him further.

"Who are you?" Billy asked him getting aggravated.

"That's enough Billy" the guy on the throne said. "Now please tell me lad, who exactly are you?"

"You can call me Achilles" Dean draws his sword, "Heard of me?"

Everyone except those three make their way to the seats above to observe from a safe distance. Dean tossed aside his jacket.

The guy on the throne laughs, "It seems he wants a fight, alright then. Billy, take care of this"

"With pleasure" Billy said grinning, drawing two short celestial bronze swords.

"You're only making more trouble for yourself, just give me my cross back and I might consider leaving you and your little operation here alone."

"If I didn't like trouble I would have gone into a different line of work." Billy made the first move and slashed towards Dean.

Dean blocked and countered.

Billy dodged and counter-attacked.

Their swords were clashing at speeds that the human eye could barely follow. Both of them seemed to be at a standstill. Billy's rapid speed would always keep him one step ahead of Dean. But Dean's superior sword skills kept Billy from getting too close.

"Hey where'd you get those?" Billy referred to his gauntlets.

"None of your business" Dean lunged at him.

Billy dodged and started running circles around Dean, 'I guess speedsters think alike' He blocks a slash from Billy. Another one grazed his back as he instinctively moved out of the way. Dean puts his foot down at a specific spot and trips Billy sending him flying and crashing through the door into the next room.

* * *

Logan rides through the streets on his motorcycle, looking and smelling for any kind of clue. He spots Dean's motorcycle on the sidewalk; he parks his own right next to it and starts sniffing.

Logan follows Dean's scent to an alley where another one shows up. 'It seems they had a confrontation here' he could tell from the smashed brick wall.

'It seems the other one ran away, and then Dean followed him.' He thought sniffing the air, "Hey Chuck" he said through his com link.

"Did you find anything Logan?" he asked.

"Yeah, it seems the kid got into a fight with somebody and now he's following him. You think it was the thief?" Logan asked.

"We can only assume, follow his trail and contact me when you find him." Charles said.

"Roger that" Logan said.

* * *

Dean and Billy had slowly moved their fight upstairs. Dean and Billy's swords clashed and the light emanating from them was the only light in the top part of the warehouse. When their swords touched they created sparks of fire.

Dean and Billy stood still pushing on each other's blades to test the others strength.

"You know" Billy said struggling to push back Dean, "You're pretty good, nobody ever makes me try this much; we should do this more often."

Dean was holding back his true strength to fool Billy into making a mistake, "Which part? The part where you steal from me? Or is it perhaps where I get to kick your ass for it?"

"Jeez man, why's this little thing so special to you anyways?" Billy asked.

"My parents gave me that when I was a kid, it's one of my most prized possessions." He said.

"Well, tell you what; if you manage to beat me I'll give it back, but if I win I get those shiny things" he said referring to Dean's gauntlets, "Deal?"

Dean grinned, "Swear on the river Styx." He said.

"I swear" Billy said with absolute confidence in himself.

"Then there's no need to hold back anymore" he uses his full strength and sends Billy flying into some boxes.

"Ow, no fair. I didn't know you could do that" he said picking himself up.

Dean quickly runs over to him before he can get up and throws him through the cracked wooden ceiling.

He goes up the stairs and as he's running up he hears breaking glass.

When he gets up there he finds a broken window wide enough for a person to fit through. Dean jumps out of the window in pursuit of Billy.

Billy comes out of hiding from behind some boxes and looks out the window to see if he's still there but he's gone.

Billy laughs out loud, "Ah even the great Achilles is no match for the king of thieves" he turns around and finds Dean standing there.

"Can't you do any better? I learned that trick when I was a boy." He said looking unimpressed.

He quickly backs up, "Sorry, Achilles, but I've got a reputation to maintain" he said raising his swords to attack.

"I'm afraid I've got to ruin it." Dean blocked the blows and knocked the swords out of his hand and through the hole he came from.

Billy goes to run down the stairs for them but Dean gets in his way and Billy runs into him. Dean stands firm with all his strength and Billy literally bounces off him.

"Oh my god, what are you made of?" Billy said rubbing his head.

Dean put his sword back in his scabbard, he then grabs Billy and lifts him up into the air like a bench press.

"Oh c'mon, put me down!" Billy yelled.

Dean threw Billy at the rock hard wall.

Billy got back up shaking his dizzy head, "So much for the direct approach"

Dean came walking at him again.

Billy acted quickly and sped up and drop kicked him sending Dean toppling over.

Billy went to run for it but Dean grabbed a piece of wood from the broken boxes and threw it at Billy's feet tripping him.

Dean got up and went over to Billy. He picked him up from the floor and as he did Billy hit him with a left hook to the cheek that made Dean's head turn.

Dean turned his head back and showed an angry face.

They both pulled back their fists readying an attack but they stopped when they heard loud creaking beneath them. They both look down and it seems the wooden floor was about to shatter from the force these two used on it.

The wooden floor beneath them shambles, Dean leaped out of the way but Billy fell through yelling.

A few seconds later Dean gets back up looking around for his speedy opponent, 'Now where did he go' he thought to himself.

He hears someone clear their throat. Dean looks down from where he heard it and see's Billy hanging, his one hand holding on to the ledge.

"I don't suppose you'd care to give me a hand?" Billy asked.

"Hey, you're the escape artist" Dean said.

All of a sudden the ledge breaks and Dean quickly grabs his hand, "But maybe you're losing your touch." He pulls him up.

Billy starts laughing, "Thank you" he said.

"You're welcome" Dean said pushing him over and getting him into an arm lock.

"I have to tell ya, Achilles, this is going to put a strain on our friendship" he said struggling.

He pulls him up, "What friendship?" Dean asked. Dean searched through Billy's clothes but finally found his cross, "You stole this from me." he puts it in his pocket.

"I didn't steal it, I merely borrowed it" Billy said, "and I believe you get that only when you beat me."

"I have you pinned down, what more—"he stops talking as he hears the floor creak again.

"Uh oh" Dean said.

This time the entire wooden floor crumbles and they both fall down, luckily some wooden boxes broke their fall.

"Well, this place certainly has a lot of character." Billy said, "Interesting design don't you think?"

Before Dean could get back up Billy takes the cross from his pocket, "I'll be taking this" then he picks up his swords from the ground, "I guess I'll be running along" he goes to walk away.

Before he gets too far Dean grabs him, "You are really starting to annoy me."

They both draw their swords again but this time Dean swings a mean slash that again knocks the weapons out of Billy's hands.

In his momentary weakness, Dean trips Billy and holds his blade to his throat.

"Now you better give it back, or you won't like what comes next" Dean said sounding totally serious.

"Ok, ok" he holds it out and Dean takes it.

Dean puts it around his neck and punches Billy square in the face knocking him out. Dean then drags his lifeless body all the way back to where they started the fight.

Dean suddenly hears clapping echo throughout the room. It comes from the man on the throne, "Bravo, lad. Excellent work"

"It seems you've beaten my best, you definitely impress me kid" he admitted.

"Funny, I don't feel honored" Dean replied.

"Well you should, now here's what's going to happen. You're either going to join my crew and obey my every order, or you can die a painful death, either one pleases me." He said with the outmost honesty.

Dean spits on the ground, "Go fuck yourself"

"Painful death it is" He said getting up from his throne.

"You shouldn't have done that" Tim said getting out of the way.

"Now before I slaughter my victims, I like to prove that I at least have the decency to introduce myself. I'm Gorgeous George, and I'm a nasty boy" he said weirdly, everyone in the room wondering what that last part meant.

"Then show me what ya got George" he said welcoming the challenge.

"My pleasure" his arm suddenly stretched out to inhuman lengths and punched him square in the face sending him skidding back.

'Ok, didn't expect that' Dean Thought.

Both of his arms stretch out and try to take a hold of him.

Dean bounces around the room using evasive maneuvers to avoid being caught.

George's arms aim towards the walls which earns a skeptic look from Dean. He's even more skeptical when the arms bounce off the walls and slam into him.

"I see you like to play dirty" Dean said shaking off that last hit.

George's hands wrapped around Dean's waist and brought him closer, "Come ta gorgeous pretty boy"

"I like to play hard to get" Dean said slicing off the arms that were wrapped around his waist.

The sliced arms fall to the ground and liquefy into a dark substance that makes its way back to George. The lost limbs regrow, "You're going to have to play harder than that"

Dean got into his weapon stance, "Watch me" he leaps with great speed and with quick lunges and slices he chops Gorgeous George into pieces.

All the pieces melt into a dark substance and reform his body, "Still not good enough" his hand grows considerably bigger and punches him hard in the gut and then in the jaw sending him up into the air.

Dean flips midair and lands safely on the ground rubbing the spot on his chin where he was hit. That definitely hurt, not like the way Logan's punches hurt, but it still hurt.

Dean got back into his weapon stance, "You must have a weakness somewhere"

"You don't get it do you?" He hears from the sidelines.

Dean looks at Billy, "You can't win, there's no way to beat him; he'll just keep on reforming. That's why we listen to whatever he says, cause otherwise he'll kill us, and we know he won't hesitate for a second."

"Then help me, help me take him down so you can be free again" Dean pleads.

Billy shakes his head, "No, it won't work. We've sacrificed enough trying to defy him, I suggest you follow our lead and just give up."

"Listen!" Dean raises his voice, "I don't know what he's done to you in the past but that's nothing compared to the shame of living the rest of your life in fear. Now I don't know about you, but I would rather die than serve somebody else, and I mean it!" he charged at Gorgeous George once again.

He sent a powerful punch to his face that connected perfectly but the result was shocking to say the least. A hole was made where Dean punched and George's body morphed so that his hands were where his head used to be so he can grab a hold of Dean.

George started swinging Dean back and forth into the concrete floor cracking and damaging it before sending him skidding across the room.

He slowly makes his way to his grounded opponent, "What a waste, and you had such talent too"

Dean got up looking worse for wear, his bloody shirt ripped to shreds, his black jeans were ripped and fading in color, his weapon was thrown aside, but his iron clad determination showed on his face. "I will never give up" he charged again.

As Dean jumped, George caught him midair and shoved him full force into the ceiling before pulling him back down into the hard ground.

Dean got up again spitting out blood, "Is that it?" he wiped the blood off his mouth, "C'mon, gimme your best shot!" he taunted his attacker.

George shot both his fists out which collided with Dean's chest and stretching all the way down the room and into the hard wall cracking it beyond repair. As George retracted his hands, Dean's body fell to the ground.

"Ouch" Billy said cringing, "There's no way he's getting up from that, that would have killed me" Billy said shocked at the force George used on Dean.

But to everyone's shock, Dean got up once again looking like he could go another round, "Is that your best?" he said while two trails of blood trickled down his chin, "It's going to take a lot more than knocking me into walls to take me down"

"No way" Billy was dumbstruck.

No one had ever withstood an attack like that from him before, if George was already pissed at this cocky insolent brat now he was furious, "Why don't you ever die!" they go back at it.

One of the teens grabs Billy by the shirt, "Look man, this guy is putting up a good fight against George, and this might be the only chance we got to live in peace."

Billy shakes him off, "Do you know what he'll do to us if we betray him? We'll be in body bags next to this guy within the hour"

"But we have a chance—"

"No! Absolutely not, I'm not risking my life for the small chance for us to be free, it's just not worth it"

Dean caught George's incoming fists and swung him into a wall creating a giant black goo stain.

George reforms and shoots out his legs to drop kick Dean and he crosses his arms in front of him blocking it but sending him a few feet back nonetheless.

When Dean uncrosses his arms to look a hand melts into a black substance and transfers itself down Dean's throat resulting in him choking and gagging.

"Yes, a slow death, one of my personal favorites." George said slowly pouring more of himself into the boy.

"He's killing him, we have to do something" the teen pleads to Billy.

"I—I can't" Billy looked away not wanting to watch the horror.

The liquid started coming out of Dean's eyes, "Just a little more and you won't feel a thing" He said grinning.

All of a sudden something zaps by and runs over Gorgeous George splattering him and in the process interrupting his execution.

Dean starts to gag and puke out all of the dark substance from his system.

Gorgeous George reforms, "Alright who has the balls?"

Billy comes to a stop in front of him, "I do"

"Ah, Billy" George wraps his body around Billy's like a snake, "I always knew you might be stupid enough to do something like this" George goes to repeat what he did on Dean on Billy.

But before George can liquefy himself Billy spun around in circle creating a tornado, "Whoa!" George yelled out as he flew away in liquid form.

"I am not going to let you do that to me, ever" Billy said, then he helped Dean up who was looking pale.

Dean grabs him by his button-down, "You will never speak of this to anyone"

Billy puts his hand over his heart, "I promise"

"Good" Dean noticed George's body reforming, "Looks like we're back in business"

"No matter, I can take both of you on" he shot his hands out hoping he would grab both of them but they both used their superior speed to avoid getting hand grabbed.

Dean tried to tangle his hands but they just reformed so they wouldn't be stuck, Billy just kept speeding around.

Dean and Billy accidentally knock into each other, "Hey watch it" "No you watch it" they both suddenly get grabbed by George's massive hands, their arms getting stuck in the process preventing them from moving.

"Aw, the little children are fighting, allow me to cut in" George said bringing them closer to him.

"No, allow me to cut in!" suddenly George is cut diagonally and the top piece slowly falls off.

"Tim?!" Dean said surprised.

Tim slices and dices the rest of George, with the tip of his metal staff, into smaller pieces and then throws some explosives to keep him separated a little longer.

Tim stands by Dean and Billy, "How you guys doing?"

"I'll manage" Dean said grabbing his sword.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Billy asked drawing his short swords.

Dean looks at them, "You two know each other?" he said confused.

Tim smiled, "I did tell you that we're not the only half-bloods in Bayville. I encountered Billy first"

"Yeah" Billy said showing him his blades with an unhappy face, "And I think I owe you a rematch!"

Tim readied himself for a fight but Dean stopped Billy, "Hey! Not now, let's take care of George first" he said not knowing what happened between the two. Billy probably lost a fight.

Gorgeous George reforms looking as pissed as ever, "Another one?! Fine then, I'll destroy you all!" he yelled shooting out his fists.

The three warriors made quick work of Gorgeous George, as they chopped and sliced and stabbed their way to him they worked in perfect sync.

When they finally reached him they did as they did before, but this time when they turned him into cold cuts Tim threw a canister of some sort which exploded and froze the puddle that was reforming. They had finally won.

"Yes!" They yelled together.

"That was awesome, we rocked!" Billy was excited to say the least.

Dean put his sword back in its scabbard and approached the frozen puddle, "But what do we do with him now? I mean this isn't going to hold him forever."

"No, it won't. But he won't be coming back when he does get out, he'll know better than that" Tim said.

"We'll dump him in the sewer or something" Billy said.

Billy comes in front of Dean, "So what's your real name? Cause I know Achilles can't be your real name" Billy asked.

"Dean, my name is Dean." He said. Dean looked at Tim, "I guess we should thank you, if it weren't for you we would have never been able to beat him." Dean admitted.

"In that case you can thank speedy over here, he's the reason I came in the first place" Tim said referring to Billy, "I came to check up on him"

"I still want my rematch" Billy said.

"You know if you had any sort of skill with combat or with a sword you might have actually stood a chance against me." Dean said to Billy.

"I still gave you a run for your money though" Billy reminded him.

"Sure you did" Dean said sarcastically.

"I must admit that you are a worthy adversary, a half-blood that isn't afraid to use his brain." Tim said to Dean.

"You might think I'm just like you, but I'm not." Dean said. They at least deserve the truth for helping him.

"What do you mean you're not?" Billy asked. Tim heard him say those words before but assumed one of his grandparents was a god, what else could it possibly mean?

"I'm not a normal half-blood. I was never hunted by monsters, hell I recently found out I was something like a half-blood. I'm just a descendant of Achilles, and I just got lucky enough to get his blessing and nothing else." Dean said.

Billy's and Tim's faces become almost unreadable, probably surprised at what they're hearing.

"You probably hate me for being this lucky and spoiled" Dean felt slightly embarrassed.

"Actually no, I don't." Tim said surprising him, "Anyone who doesn't have to live like the way we do should feel lucky to be alive. Nobody else I know comes close to understanding but it seems somehow you do. You have my respect," he gives him his hand.

Dean takes it, "And you have mine."

They leave the main hall and walk through the main area.

"So what do we do with this place now?" Billy said.

Dean didn't say anything due to Tim's very skeptic face, it was obvious he would come up with something logical.

"I think I know" Tim said.

"Then let's hear it" Dean said.

"Well, Billy ran away from home when he was young and I pretty much had to raise myself with my father always off on business so we know what it's like to be alone. All these other kids here, their orphans, kids that live on the street, and kids that ran away from home. We'll turn this place into our own hideout for the future and take these kids in so they can live better here or it could just be a cool hang out spot. Billy and I will stay here to keep it safe from future dangers and Dean will go on living where he does now, wherever that may be, but none the less the three of us will be in charge of this place. To top it all off Bayville isn't infested with monsters to bother us so it's perfect." Tim said.

'That makes things easier' Dean thought, "I would say that that is perfect, but what about all the stealing? I mean I know you're the silent crime wave" Dean said.

"That would be us" Billy said with pride.

"We won't be stealing anymore, I'm pretty sure we have enough money and supplies to last us a very long time." Tim said.

"Plus that was only in the beginning when we were still fixing up the place, now we basically have everything we need" Billy said.

Dean raises an eyebrow, "Really?"

"For now" Billy said.

"Just don't do anything noticeable" Dean said, "Now, do you have a gym?" Dean asked.

"Absolutely, filled with tons of training equipment but no one to teach us. Hey maybe you can help us with that, you know fighting right?" Billy asked.

Tim smacks him over the head, "He obviously can fight air head"

"Ow" Billy complained.

"Someone's gotta teach you guys how to defend yourselves….maybe, I'll think about it. For now I gotta get home man." Dean said.

"Oh one last thing" Billy gets up on one of the tables, "Hey everyone!" he yells out.

Everyone stops what they're doing and looks, "From now on our friend here Dean can always come in no matter what, is that understood?"

They yell out "yeah!"

"Oh and he's going to be managing the gym from now on!"

Everyone cheered.

"Now am I a nice guy or what?" Billy said to him.

"You're a geek" Dean said grinning, "See ya around Billy" he said.

* * *

Logan was getting closer; he knew it from the strength of the scent.

"You know" Logan unsheathes his claws, as he turns around, "If I was in actual danger you would be way too late" Dean said.

"If you were in actual danger I wouldn't have come alone" he said sheathing his claws, "So what happened to you?" he said looking at his bloody and tattered clothes.

"Listen, I just wanna go home right now. So if you don't mind I'm gonna go get my bike" Dean starts running top speed and opens his phone and stares at the screen for a few seconds, "50 missed calls from Jean" he puts it back in his pocket and continues running, "Tomorrow is going to be a long day"

* * *

Gorgeous George walked into a dark chamber that was lit up with nothing but television screens surrounding a shadowed chair.

"What brings you here George?" A dark and metallic voice spoke.

"Those darn kids froze me and then dumped me in the sewer, the nerve!" Gorgeous George complained.

"It matters not, your little scheme wasn't doing anything to help my cause" the voice spoke again. "Ah but look here" the screens showed Dean battling George, "Look at what nature has created, I thought mutants were the next stage in evolution but I was sadly mistaken. These half-bloods are just as capable as mutants if not more. The true ultimate being is not of mutant or half-blood, but the mixture of the two. Imagine the power that it would have, the ferocity, the aggressiveness, the result would be BEAUTIFUL!" the voice yelled out.

George backed away slowly from his master, he hated when he spoke of creating life, and it scared him.

"This is what I must do, from now on these half-bloods should be wary of Mister Sinister!" his bright red eyes flash in the dark.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

_Secret Revealed_

**At Bayville high**

Dean was sitting with his fellow teammates at lunch explaining his encounter with Billy.

"So we were just beating the crap out of each other. Left and right both of us wouldn't give up, whether it was sword fighting or simple hand to hand combat. In the end it took all of us to take down this guy." Dean was telling the story.

"So how did you manage to beat him?" Jean asked fascinated at the way Dean tells his tale.

"Well, it was our teamwork and combined effort that bested him. But I was lucky enough to become friends with Billy in the end." He said.

"Wow" Rogue said sounding surprised, "After all that y'all became friends? How" she asked.

"We found some common ground" Dean said bluntly not wanting to expand further on that matter.

"So what was that place like, Dean?" Evan asked him.

Dean thought about a good way to put it, "Well it was probably like every kid's dream hang out spot. You could literally do anything you wanted." He leaned back on his chair.

"So why didn't you tell the police about it?" Scott asked him.

"Because I'm gonna make sure they keep their stealing more on the down low. A lot of those kids there are orphans with nowhere to go, they need a place to stay and grow up away from dangerous streets. Even if they're not being taught the right things, I'm gonna make sure to help them out as much as I can."

Scott can understand what he's saying very clearly. He knows better than anyone else on this table just how bad and lonely an orphan life is. He'll let this matter slide, for the sake of other kids not having to grow up the way he did.

"So why don't we invite zhem to the institute?" Kurt asked.

"Yeah, that would be a great idea." Kitty agreed.

The rest of them agreed with this statement too.

"I already asked them, but they declined. They just couldn't turn their backs on those kids." Dean said.

"By the way ya described Billy ah don't think ah would have liked him anyway." Rogue said.

"You're probably right; he's a lot like Pietro." Dean said.

Everyone sighs at that comment.

"Oh man, does that dude ever shut up? Evan asked out loud.

"Well I haven't found a way yet" Dean admits, even when he's unconscious he's still talking. "Alright well I think I'm going to enjoy the rest of my free time outside." He got up.

"I'll go with you then" Jean said also getting up.

Dean and Jean walked away with her arm hooked around his.

Kitty notices this and her inner gossip girl just can't resist sharing her opinion.

"So has anybody else noticed how close Dean and Jean have gotten lately?" Kitty said.

That question grabs everyone's attention, particularly Scott's and Rogue's.

"What do you mean _close_?" Scott asked.

"Well for a while now they've been spending a lot of time together, more than usual." Kitty added.

"You think maybe those two have something going on?" Evan suggested.

"Well it wouldn't be too farfetched now would it?" Kitty asked.

"Why don't you just mind ya own business for once Kitty?" Rogue got up and stormed off.

Well that seemed odd, even from Scott's point of view. Rogue doesn't usually care about any kind of gossip the escapes Kitty's mouth.

"What's with her?" Evan asked.

"I'm not sure..." Kitty said wondering.

Kurt couldn't help but wonder either, something was definitely bugging her. And nothing usually bugs Rogue out.

**Later on at the Boarding House**

The Brotherhood was just doing their usual lazy stuff like any other regular day. Their recent failure with the X-men had earned them more than enough extra training hours with Mystique that they absolutely despised.

Even with one of their teammates out of the fight they still managed to lose royally. It angered them all how those X-men were always one step ahead of them, what they would do to give them some of their own medicine.

Mystique comes down the stairs, "Everyone listen up!" she shouted.

Everyone stood at attention immediately out of fear of another hour of exercising.

"I know that you've had trouble dealing with Xavier's students, particularly their newest member." Mystique said.

Blob squeezes his fists at the thought of how Dean had humiliated him twice, "Man when I get my hands on him—"

"There's something very different about him, he's not like the rest of them." Lance said cutting in.

"Yeah yo, he knows some kung fu shit" Toad makes an imitation of martial arts, "Waa!"

"No! That's not it. Why does he have so many different abilities? It's just weird." Lance said.

"I don't care how many he has, he's still not as fast as me" Pietro said boasting.

"That didn't stop him from beating you before" Eileen said putting him in his place.

Pietro's face turned slightly red, "You weren't even there! How would you know?"

"I bet I could have stopped him" Damien said leaning on the wall with his legs crossed. Fever Pitch had adopted the name Damien; he didn't like anyone knowing anything about his past life.

Lance bursts out laughing, "You couldn't even take on Summers, what makes you think you could take him on?"

Damien eyes flared with red flames and his hands turned into fiery skeleton hands, "Why don't I show you"

"Bring it on bone head!" Lance said accepting his challenge.

"Enough!" Mystique yells.

That catches the attention of the two youngsters.

"You both have neither the ability nor the skill to get the job done." Mystique said.

All of a sudden there is a knock on the door which catches everyone's attention.

"Fortunately I've found someone who has both." Mystique said going to answer the door.

Mystique answers the door and finds a well built young man with a black Mohawk going down to his neck. On his left arm is a tattoo that starts at the base of his neck and travels all the way down to the bottom of his arm. He wore tight black pants and a black tank-top.

Mystique looks unimpressed, "So where is he?" she asked.

"He said he had pressing matters to attend to so he couldn't make it" he said. The young man enters and everyone notices him.

Eileen gets particularly interested in his incredibly chiseled body, 'I think I've found the solution to my problems' she thought.

"This is Daken" Mystique introduced him, "He is the one that will take care of our _problem_." She said.

* * *

Dean and Jean were currently on their way home from another date. They had gone on a few dates so far and they both seemed to like each other very much.

Dean parked his bike in the garage, "So did you have fun?" he asked.

"Yeah, a lot" Jean replied.

They started walking towards the entrance.

"By the way, I'm really happy that you agreed to take it slow with me." Jean said.

"Well it's understandable, you haven't exactly had too much experience, plus we've only known each other for a little more than a month." Dean said.

"Yeah" she agreed. "But speaking of experience, just how much do you have?" she asked curiously.

"Well…." This is a troubling question for Dean. He isn't exactly sure Jean wants to hear what he has to say. "You told me you're a virgin, right?" he asked.

Jean blushes at his question, "Yes…yes I am."

"Well let's just say that in the category of experience, I'm way ahead of you." Dean simply puts.

"So you're not…."

"A virgin? God no, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now if I was. If I was a virgin I would be constantly complaining about you taking it slow, I have patience." He said.

"Ok then. How many girlfriends have you had?" Jean asked.

'Oh god this keeps on getting worse' he thought. "Listen, don't take this the wrong way but I'm not really comfortable with sharing that information right now."

"No it's ok; you're obligated to have your own conditions in this relationship." She said.

"Thank you" he said.

They walked in and noticed that no one was around.

"So basically what you're saying is…..I have a lot of catching up to do?" she asked getting closer to him.

"With respect, yes." Dean reminded also getting closer.

"Well even with our differences, I think we can make this work." Her head leans closer to his.

Dean leans his closer to hers and their lips meet. The kiss is sweet, gentle as Dean almost tentatively feels the way forward. When he pulls back he speaks in a breathy soft whisper, "Not bad for a beginner" he grinned.

**Back at the Boarding house**

"Oh come on! Another one! Just let me do it. I've improved since the last time I went up against him; I'll save this clown the time of embarrassing himself." Lance said.

"Why you insolent—"Mystique was interrupted by Daken's hand.

Daken grinned, "If you're so confident then show me what you've got" he offered.

"With pleasure" Lance replied.

They went outside and stood across from each other.

"You ready?" Lance asked.

"Let's get this over with" he said bending his knees.

"Begin" Mystique said.

In the blink of an eye Daken closed the gap between them and punched Lance in the gut.

By the look on Lance's face, that really hurt. His eyes looked like they were gonna bulge out and his jaw hung low.

Daken removes his hand and Lance drops to the ground unconscious.

"Anyone else have anything to say?" Daken said crossing his hands over his chest with a dirty look on his face.

The rest of the brotherhood just stood there in fear.

"Yes, I believe you will do just fine" Mystique said.

* * *

Rogue and Kitty were walking through the hallways chatting about nonsense, well at least Kitty was.

They pass by the top of the staircase and they notice Dean and Jean kissing at the bottom of it.

Both Rogue and Kitty gasp from the surprise.

Rogue immediately leaves while Kitty stays behind and watches.

"Not bad for a beginner" Dean grinned.

"Oh my God! I have to tell somebody!" Kitty runs towards the others' rooms.

Both Dean and Jean snap out of their daydream and notice Kitty running away.

"And you wondered why I didn't want her above all to know" Jean said.

Dean shrugs, "It was bound to come out sooner or later."

They both share a smile together.

* * *

Daken settles in his new room. He never had a room of his own, he always slept in those water tanks whenever he was hurt from training and that's it.

Also he's experiencing a lot of strange things, it would be considered puberty but for an experiment like him he doesn't know what to call it.

Magneto had made sure for him to have a more normal look so that he blends in better. Magneto gave Daken some things to carry with him but not a lot; just the essential clothing and a uniform to wear during battle.

Eileen walks in his room and closes the door behind her.

Daken turns around and spots Eileen in a robe covering most of her body, "What are you doing in here?" Daken said.

She walks up to him slowly swaying her hips, "I just came to see if you were ok" she said clinging to his warm body.

Daken feels a knot tie up in his stomach from her being so close to him, but why? "I-I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe you were feeling lonely" she said feeling his strong pectorals.

He starts to get a weird feeling between his legs that scares him so he pushes her away from him. "I'm not lonely, now go away" Daken said undressing.

Eileen eyes flash purple with interest in his body, "So I heard that you were made in a lab, is that true?" she asked.

"Yes" he replied.

"So you barely know anything about the outside world or what people do?" she asked.

"Yes" he replied irritated at her frequent questions.

"So what do you think when I do this to you?" she asked kissing him deeply.

Daken shocked from surprise remained frozen.

Eileen backed away, "So?"

"I….I like this" he said embracing her in a deep kiss. This time Eileen adds some tongue action and it simply drives Daken wild.

"What is that that you do with your tongue?" he asked fascinated.

"It's called making out" she said licking her lips. "And if you liked that" she pushed him onto his bed. She took off her robe, revealing that she wore nothing but purple underwear. Exposing her amazingly curved body, "Then you're gonna love this" she said jumping on him and unzipping his pants.

* * *

The next morning Kitty returns to her room after breakfast to find Rogue sitting by the window looking out.

"You didn't come down for breakfast" Kitty mentions to Rogue.

Rogue shrugs slightly, "Wasn't hungry"

"Rogue is everything…..you know, alright?" Kitty is only asking because even by Rogue's standards this brooding session had gone on some time.

"Ah don't know. Is it?" she asks back which causes Kitty to frown up in confusion.

Kitty grabs a chair and moves it next to Rogue so she can sit down. "Like what's the matter Rogue? I mean you have been seriously quiet since last night." The silence continues, "Are you angry at Dean?" There is a twitch in Rogue's features that Kitty interprets to mean she has nailed the issue. "You are aren't you?" she asked.

Rogue drags her eyes from looking out to her friend, "Ah wasn't at first" she explains.

"But" Kitty prompts Rogue to continue.

"But as ah thought about it more…..ya know how Mystique lied ta meh. Used meh ta try and hurt all of ya and ah thought he was my friend but he has been lyin to meh as well. I thought we might have had something special…" She said.

"Maybe so but let me ask you this; do you think he tried to use you like Mystique did?" Kitty asked her with sincerity.

"Why are ya so interested in defending him?" Rogue has to ask.

"Because he is my friend and you're my best friend. I don't want you two to ruin your friendship just because of one kiss. Don't just think that its over just because he might be with Jean right now, things can change."

"Where did ya get that from?" Rogue asks wondering how Kitty came up with that idea.

Kitty shrugs, "It is kinda obvious really. I never believed there was anything special about me when I was younger, but not too long ago I found out I was a mutant and boom now I'm here with the rest of you."

Rogue contemplates Kitty's words. The fact that Ms. Popular was ruining her love life wasn't the issue right now. It was that she thought she had a chance with Dean. She hates people who lie and keep secrets from her because it has been done too often to her in her life to manipulate her and all for their own benefit and not Rogue's. But was it Dean that made up that lie, or was it her own mind?

"Rogue I'm like sure Dean didn't mean to hurt you and I'm sure he would apologize if he knew how you felt."

"Yeah well it still doesn't make meh feel any better" she said pouting.

"Join the club" Kitty said.

"What does that mean?" she asked.

Kitty suddenly realized that Rogue didn't know, "You're not the only one who's bummed out about this. I liked Dean too, but I guess I'm just not as lucky as you or Jean."

* * *

Dean was moving around the Danger Room in 5x Earth's gravity. Nobody was watching him, something he'd grown accustomed to because of his weird schedule using it. So he figured out how to deactivate it by voice control, it makes things much easier.

He could now successfully run around for a certain amount of time. Now he would switch to a more difficult exercise, push-ups.

He gets into a push-up position and starts. With each one his arms start to get weaker and weaker from the incredible strain that they are in. 8…..9…..he struggles for the last one…..10 he collapses to the floor.

'Well I hope next time goes a little better than that' he thought, "End simulation" he said and he felt the strain of the extra weight release its hold and leave his body.

Dean immediately went up to take a shower and clean up.

As he entered his room, wearing nothing but black sweatpants, he realized that he forgot his phone downstairs.

After he retrieved it, as he was on his way back up he passed by the gym and noticed Rogue going at it on one of the heavy bags.

Dean stays by the doorway and watches Rogue beat up her imaginary opponent from afar.

Rogue gives the bag a good one two combination, then a left hook, followed up by a right uppercut. She kicks to the midsection and then follows up with a jab and a right elbow to the face.

"That's actually not bad" Dean admitted.

Rogue looks back and notices Dean; she simply ignores him and continues pummeling the heavy bag.

Dean knew Rogue worked out but he never actually watched her do it before. Rogue seemed to have a raging fire inside of her that she just wanted to bring out and it seemed her fists were the most efficient way to do that right now.

He came closer to her in order to watch her better. She had good form, and it seemed that even for a person her size she could still pack a punch.

Dean noticed the heavy bag moved too much so he went over to behind the heavy bag and held it still to make it easier for Rogue.

Rogue pretends like he's not there so she moves to a different bag.

Dean notices this, "Are you ignoring me?" he asked.

Rogue gave no answer as she continued punching and kicking the bag.

'I mean I didn't do anything to her right?' he thought to himself. He moved behind her bag again, "Or are you just so focused into your workout that you don't even notice me?" he asked.

Rogue starts to look irritated and moves to the sliding bag.

Dean watches her give it a go on the sliding heavy bag but can't help but notice this bag's flaw, "You know you're doing it wrong right?" he asked.

Rogue stops what she's doing and finally snaps, "What do ya mean ahm doin it wrong!" she yells at him.

Dean can't help but snicker at his accomplishment and her reaction.

"What's so funny?!" she asked.

"I made you talk" he said smiling

Rogue took a second to just look at him. How could she be mad at somebody who didn't even do anything wrong? Or even reacts differently when she's yelling at them?

"So what's up with you?" he asked curious about her behavior.

"Ah just get caught up in the moment whenever ah get into the workout ya know?" she said hiding her true feelings from him.

"That's understandable, but you were still fighting wrong." He reminded her.

"Ok explain ta meh how I was fighting wrong?" she asked crossing her hands over her chest.

"Alright, kick that bag" he said pointing to the sliding bag.

"Fine then" she backed up to give herself some room before giving the bag a hard left kick sending it sliding to the other side.

Dean goes to the other side, "That was a good kick, but you're still doing it wrong."

"Ok then, show me how it's done Mr. Expert" she said backing away.

Dean shook his slippers off his feet and readied himself. Dean sends a powerful right kick to the bag with explosive sound but it doesn't move an inch. Dean turns the bag around and he shows a hole in the bag where sand is pouring out.

Rogue's jaw drops.

"Now would you rather push your opponent or finish your opponent?" he asked referring to the break in the bag.

Rogue comes closer and inspects it, "You literally made ah hole in it just by kicking it, and this was my favorite one." She said.

"Don't worry about the bag, a little duct tape will fix that up." Dean said, "But the power of the kick itself needs to be precise and needs to be focused. And just a reminder, I barely used any real power; a normal trained person could do this." Dean put his slippers back on and walked out.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

_Rivalry_

**At Bayville High**

"So you're not going to be here later?" Jean asked Dean.

They were sitting outside of school, enjoying the brief time they had before class.

"I'm afraid not, I'm going to visit my parents for the day." Dean mentioned.

Jean pouts, "I was hoping we could spend some quality time together today"

Dean put his arm around her, "Don't worry, we will. I just have to get the rest of my things from back home, plus I haven't seen my parents in a while."

"Alright but when are you going to get back?" she asked.

"It all depends on if my mother makes food or not, then anything goes." He admits to her.

"Sadly I can't argue with that, your mom is a fantastic cook. Hey maybe she can teach Kitty how to cook." She suggested.

"Why what's wrong with Kitty's cooking?" he asked.

"Kitty messes up everything she tries to make. One time she made muffins that were harder than rocks, you could've played soft ball with them" she joked.

They both shared a brief laugh.

Dean stops laughing as he sniffs something funny in the air. It kind of smells like Logan after he uses the Danger room for an hour, wet dog. He looks around and spots the Brotherhood hanging out not too far away from him with someone new with them.

The guy stood about his own height, had a long black haired Mohawk, onyx colored eyes, and a tattoo going down his arm. He was also wearing a black tank-top with black jeans. His stench reminded him of Logan, and so did his face. His face would have looked exactly like he pictured a young Logan, except with Sabertooth's body size and his dark cold eyes. Now those were a pair of eyes he would never forget; the eyes of a raging animal that just wanted to rip you apart and eat you. And to top it all off he was giving Dean a dirty look, he didn't know why but something in his gut told him that this guy would be trouble.

Jean noticed something strange about Dean's sudden reaction, "Hey, what's wrong?" she asked.

Dean looked at her and back at the guy again, "Nothing" he said, "Nothing at all"

* * *

Later on that day Dean had finished his last class of the day and he was eager to just get out of here and go.

He meets up with the rest of the gang as they all usually do after classes finish.

"So you're not going to be here later?" Kitty asked.

"Yeah I'm going to my place to get the rest of my stuff." Dean answered.

"Oh and I was going to bake cookies today" Kitty sounded disappointed.

"Oh hell no! Dean I'm coming with you man, I don't wanna be anywhere near Kitty's cooking." Evan said backing away from her.

"Shut up!" Kitty yelled, "My cooking isn't that bad!"

"You're right Kitty, it's not bad" Kurt said resulting in everyone eyeballing him for such a statement, "It's a catastrophe"

That resulted in everyone but Kitty laughing their asses off.

Kitty started chasing Kurt around the hallways, "I'll show you a catastrophe! Get back here!"

Everyone laughs at the site of Kitty trying to catch Kurt.

Not too far away from them Dave and Stoney were getting their things from their lockers. At the moment Dave was enjoying his soda while he waited for Stoney.

"Will you hurry up? I wanna get out of here." Dave said sipping his soda.

"Dude its called patience, learn it bro" Stoney said getting the last of his books.

Dave turned around and suddenly somebody bumped into him resulting in them getting soda all over their black tank-top and black jeans.

Dave looked up at the guy with the black haired Mohawk; his face looked extremely pissed off.

"Uh-oh" Dave gulped.

The guy lifted Dave up by his shirt with one tattooed arm and pinned him to the lockers, "Look what you did to my clothes meatbag!" he growled.

"I-I'm sorry" Dave stuttered, "I didn't see you"

Stoney was frozen in place from fear.

"You're dead meat!" the guy pulled back his fist ready to punch his face in.

Dave closed his eyes and waited for the impact but it never came. He opened his eyes to find the guy's fist caught by somebody else. He looks over and sees that Dean caught his fist.

"You let him go or your stained clothes will be stained with red next" Dean said looking stern and unafraid of this guy.

The other guy flashed him a cocky grin, "Why don't you make me, tough guy" he said provoking him.

"Then I will" Dean sent powerful fist into the guy's chest sending him sliding back.

Dave dropped down and ran behind Dean.

The other guy got right back up like it was nothing and readied himself, "Big mistake" he said.

They both prepared themselves for a fight but before they could start someone yelled, "What is going on here!"

They look back and find Principal Darkholme stomping up to them, "I will not allow such behavior in my school, is that clear?!" she yelled at both of them.

Dean backs off but the other guy simply growled in return.

"I said is that clear Daken?" she asked getting closer to him eyeballing him.

Daken turns around and walks outside without another word.

Mystique is angered at her new recruit's uncontrollable anger. At times he could be the calmest person around but the smallest things could change his attitude and make him do a 180. It is also difficult to control him when he is vastly superior to her in physical ability.

Dean passes by Principal Darkholme, "Why don't you try keeping a leash on your dog Mystique" he said in a low voice.

Mystique doesn't reply to Dean's remark, she knows he'll get what's coming to him soon enough.

Dean goes back over to his teammates.

"What was that about?" Jean asked.

"I think Mystique brought another person into their group" Dean admitted.

"You mean that guy who you just hit?" Scott asked leaving aside the part where he shouldn't have hit somebody.

"Yeah, and from the looks of it he's pretty tough." He looks at his hand, "He took one of my weaker punches like it was nothing, and I can only imagine what that might mean for my full strength."

"This could be a problem Ja" Kurt said.

"We should definitely tell the Professor about this, he'll want to know" Scott said.

As they were leaving the school, Dean and Jean were on his bike ready to leave.

Dean could see Daken from far away giving him a dirty look again.

"What are you going to do?" Jean asked him.

"I don't know, but I suddenly get the feeling that it's a bad idea for me to leave"

**Later on at the Boarding house**

Mystique was excited to see how her new member would go up against Dean. Although his sort of loose cannon behavior might be an issue, one that could endanger their mission.

The Brotherhood came in all dressed up to fight. Daken came down last with his own unique uniform. It was a black suit that covered his whole body except for his mouth similar to the one Wolverine had. He had bandage wrapped his hands and feet, he wore black boots over the wrapping on his feet, and where there would be black by his eyes like Wolverine's his had white covering his eyes.

"I still don't agree with your plan, I should just fight him as soon as I see him" Daken pleaded.

"You will not, if this is to work you have to take them by surprise. And don't you think about disobeying my orders, or else Magneto will know about it." Mystique warned.

Daken growls in response.

"That's what I thought" Mystique said.

**At the Institute**

Scott and Jean were in the Professor's study discussing what they had seen earlier today.

"So you are saying that this Daken could be another mutant?" the Professor asked.

"If what Dean said is true then he must be" Scott admitted.

"It seems that the Brotherhood has caught up to us in manpower, but whether this Daken will tip the scale is yet to be seen." The Professor said.

Jean just remembered something, "Oh Professor, Dean also mentioned to me that Daken had a striking resemblance to Logan; although I have no idea how that would be important."

That is where Jean might be wrong. With Logan's past a clouded mystery, and his troubling broken memories of him being experimented on, this could mean more that it seems.

All of a sudden an alarm goes off in the house and gunfire can be heard from the outside.

Everyone is suited up and ready to fight when they go outside to check what's going on. They find a couple of scorched spots from the laser turrets and a letter on the ground.

Scott picks up the letter and reads it.

_Dear losers, unless you want us to start causing trouble around town, meet us by the scrap yard in 30 minutes. _

"I think Pietro left this" Scott said handing it to the Professor, "and it looks like those new defenses Logan put up work just fine."

"Can't have anybody sneaking in and out of here whenever they want now can we" Logan admitted.

"I suggest you get a move on then" Charles told Scott, "Logan I need you to take the x-jet and retrieve Dean. They will need him for this even if he's late."

* * *

The X-men arrive at the scrapyard. They walk through the piles of old abandoned cars and other kinds of scrap metal.

All of a sudden the ground shakes violently and the piles of cars around them wobble and start to rain down upon them.

Cyclops blasts one. Marvel Girl telekinetically moves one away. Shadowcat phases through one that was falling on top of her. Nightcrawler teleports out of the way taking Spyke with him.

A sudden earthquake seems unlikely so that leaves one other possibility and as the X-men regroup across from them have appeared Quicksilver, Blob, Toad, Avalanche, Phantazia, and Fever Pitch.

"Hey X-geeks!" Avalanche yells insultingly, "Did you miss us?"

"Hardly, let's do this Alvers!" Cyclops yelled.

Avalanche's eyes roll back into the back of his head as he sets the ground in motion again pushing the X-men off balance while Quicksilver runs in and Blob picks up a car and throws it at them. Toad hops from one of the fallen cars to another bringing himself into a good position to try and spit slime into one of the X-men's faces and blind them. Fever Pitch powers up and flies up high to get a vantage point for him to sort of 'snipe'. Phantazia stays right where she is ready to blast anyone she can catch.

**A little while earlier**

As Dean is sitting in his living room with his parents he gets this weird feeling that he should go back for some reason.

"So tell me, how's it going with you and Jean?" his mother asked him waking him up from his daydream.

"Um its going good, a little slow but good." Dean admits.

"Now keep in mind, you promised to stop fooling around like you did with those other girls. Jean is a very nice girl, one that I wouldn't mind having my grandchildren." His mother said washing dishes.

Dean sighs, "Geese Ma can you stop with that, I'm only sixteen"

"But not for long, and she's a keeper." His mother reminded him.

His father was reading the paper while watching the Knicks game, "Honey leave the kid alone, and he's got other things to worry about."

"I just want him to have beautiful children one day, not be stuck as a playboy"

"Ma I know" he admits, "I want to find the right girl for me it's just that—"he pauses.

"It's just that what?" his mother said.

Dean gets up, "I think someone is here to see me" he goes to the window and spots the X-jet approaching. 'I knew I heard it right' he runs outside with his stuff.

The X-jet lands and Logan comes out in uniform, "Kid we got trouble"

"I'm gone for a few hours and boom look what happens"

* * *

The fight at the scrap yard continued and everyone has their hands full.

Toad and Nightcrawler end up battling over the piles of cars and junk seeing whose agility is better.

Marvel Girl and Phantazia are duking it out with their powers trying to overcome one another.

Blob has managed to catch Rogue's arm as she attacked him (after she absorbed a good portion of his power) and is now spinning around while Avalanche uses his powers to keep Cyclops off balance to prevent him from firing an accurate shot.

Blob lets Rogue fly and she crashes into a pile of scrap some distance across the yard. He shouts triumphantly, "Ha!" only for something to tickle him as Cyclops finally manages to hit him. "I'm the Blob! You can't stop me!" he yells as he runs right at Cyclops as Marvel Girl grabs Blob with her telekinesis and manages to stop him for now.

Phantazia goes to take advantage of the situation by sending a small blast towards her but Cyclops matches it with his own optic blast.

Avalanche is about to intervene when Rogue tackles him from behind, "Not so fast!"

Avalanche gets back up looking irritated, "Get lost Rogue!" he reaches out and makes the ground shake creating a wave that rolls along the ground at Rogue who manages to catch it and ride it back before having to jump off it as it collides with more scrap from behind her.

* * *

Quicksilver dodges some of Spyke's spikes, "You are still so slow Daniels," he taunts his long time rival, "You couldn't hit me standing still"

Spyke produces spikes along the entire length of his arm, "Try dodging this!" he yells as he fires them at Quicksilver who not only dodges them but catches them as well.

He smirks, "My turn!" he then throws them back but at speeds much faster than Spyke can manage and they end up pinning him Spyke to a car by his uniform. Quicksilver is just admiring his handy work when he spots Shadowcat phasing through all of Fever Pitch's attacks.

'What an amateur' he thought, 'I could take care of her easily'

All of a sudden spikes fly at him and pin him to a car.

"You gotta pay attention slowpoke" Spyke said removing the rest of the spikes from his uniform.

* * *

Fever Pitch is getting very aggravated at how this little girl can just dodge whatever he throws at her. He throws another fireball but she just phases through it again.

"You know you're never going to hit me like that" Shadowcat said with a cute smile.

Fever Pitch's head starts blazing with uncontrolled flames and he squeezes his fiery bone hands into fists.

Shadowcat can tell that he's definitely pissed off.

Fever Pitch opens his mouth and exhales a wave of fire that fully encompasses Shadowcat. When he stops he finds no trace of her, did he accidentally disintegrate her?

Shadowcat phases out of the ground behind Fever Pitch ready to strike him but before she could something hit her so hard she knocked into Fever Pitch and dropped to the floor unconscious.

* * *

Marvel Girl was blocking Phantazia's incoming attacks with her TK shield.

"You're never going to get through" Marvel Girl said.

Phantazia's face grew a wicked grin, "I have a feeling my luck is about to change"

All of a sudden something hits Marvel Girl in the back knocking her over making her lose focus resulting in her TK shield to collapse and one of Phantazia's blasts hit her.

Marvel Girl looks back but see's no one there, 'what just happened?' she thought. She looks forward to see Phantazia approaching. Marvel Girl attempts to use her telekinesis but when she tries nothing happens. "What happened? Why aren't my powers working?"

"It's a side effect of being hit with my Electromagnetic blasts; it tampers with your powers." Phantazia said before blasting her again knocking her out cold.

Cyclops spotted this, "Jean!" he yelled.

With his momentary distraction Cyclops was swallowed up into a fissure that Avalanche made and was quickly closed in trapping his hands along with the lower part of his body.

"Looks like you're stuck Summers" Avalanche said mockingly.

Cyclops struggled to free his hands but the hold was too tight for him, "Alvers when I get out of here I'm gonna—"

"You won't be going anywhere or be doing anything" Avalanche said taking the visor off of Cyclops's eyes.

Cyclops immediately closed his eyes as to not accidentally hurt anybody.

Nightcrawler see's this from afar and decides to go help. Toad jumps down in his path to stop him but Nightcrawler is finished playing and as Toad's tongue lashes out he grabs it and yanks Toad hard before tossing the gangly teen out of the way.

Nightcrawler leaps into the air to jump over the scrap but in mid air something takes hold of his tail and swings him into a car head first really hard knocking the wind out of him. He looks up but sees a blurred dark figure standing above him before the lights go out.

* * *

Rogue was having trouble handling Blob with just the one power she had, especially when he had more of it.

'What would Dean do in this situation?' she thought.

She thought back to when he demonstrated his impressive kick on the sliding heavy bag, "the power of the kick itself needs to be precise and needs to be focused" his voice echoes in her mind. Focused and precise, got it. All she needed now was an opening.

Rogue comes closer to Blob to provoke him into attacking, which he does. It is way more difficult for Rogue to dodge than it is for Dean but she still has a slight edge on speed.

She sees Blob pulling back a left punch so she ducks underneath the obvious attack and replies with a well focused and precise front kick to Blob's chest sending him flying into a bunch of old broken cars.

"Yes! Ah did it!" she cheered for herself.

All of a sudden something knocks her on her back, she looks up to see Phantazia pretending to clap, "Congratulations, here's your prize" she blasted Rogue rendering her unconscious.

* * *

Quicksilver gathered up pieces of scrap and started throwing them at Spyke from every direction.

"Time to show you just how fast I am Daniels, are you ready? Try and stop me!" Quicksilver runs some distance away before running around and running right at Spyke; although Quicksilver is forced to stop halfway because Daken stood in his way.

"Hey what are you doing?! I'm in the middle of something here!" he yelled.

"Go help the others gather up the X-men, I'll take care of the porcupine" Daken said facing Spyke.

Quicksilver hesitates to further argue out of fear for his own neck.

The rest of the Brotherhood gather up all the unconscious X-men in a pile and Blob ties a metal bar around them just in case.

"This is supposed to hold them?" Avalanche asked.

"Their powers are gone for now and they are all going to be unconscious for a while, so don't worry about it. Let's just watch Daken take care of the last one" Phantazia said.

"So where's your friend?" Daken asked with a cocky grin.

"He's not here right now, but he'll be here soon" Spyke said trying to buy him some time.

"What's the matter, he chicken?" Daken said.

"He's not afraid of you, he's not afraid of any of you" he points to them all.

Daken laughs, "Well kid, you're about to find out why he should be" he said approaching Spyke slowly.

Spyke sprouted spikes all over his arms and proceeded to fire them at Daken hoping to slow him down.

As Daken moves at a faster pace and gets closer he makes the slightest movements to dodge Spyke's attacks.

Spyke starts to get really nervous and it shows through his sweaty brow.

Daken starts running while dodging in perfect sync.

Spyke slides underneath Daken at the last possible moment and uses his spiked arm to stop himself and turn around for a sweep. Spyke's sweep was ineffective to Daken's solid stance.

Daken kicks Spyke in the face lightly (at least by his standards) and Spyke goes skidding along the ground.

Spyke wipes his face with his sleeve and see's red, by the looks and feels of that one hit he must have broken his nose; and he didn't seem to put much effort into it anyway.

"C'mon kid, the least you can do is make it fun for me" Daken said approaching again.

Spyke quickly got up and produced a staff like spike.

"A weapon huh, let's see how durable it is" he said with a cocky grin.

Spyke tries to use the staff to the best of its ability and keep a good amount of distance between him and Daken but sadly he's not that good with it.

Daken grabs the staff by the end of it and uses it to pull Spyke closer to him in order to give him a good gut punch.

As Spyke falls to the floor holding his aching stomach, Daken holds the staff in his hands and breaks it in two without any effort. "Play time is over kid" he said like he really meant it.

Spyke panics and covers his whole body with spikes to provide at least some kind of protection.

Daken lifts him up by his shirt, "You think those spikes of yours are gonna do any good? Think again!" Daken started smashing the spikes off of Spyke's body a few at a time.

Spyke keeps trying to protect himself by constantly producing more spikes but they don't last more than two seconds.

Daken starts to laugh sadistically, "C'mon spike boy, can't you do any better?!"

"HEY!" they hear all of a sudden.

Daken stops his attack and looks to where it came from as does the rest of the Brotherhood on the sidelines.

The Brotherhood spots Achilles in full uniform pumped up and ready to fight, "Put him down!"


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

_A fight unlike any other_

The Brotherhood spots Achilles in full uniform pumped up and ready to fight, "Put him down!"

Daken does as he says only out of anticipation for a real challenge.

The second Spyke hit the floor Phantazia blasted him rendering him unconscious and Blob carried him over to where the rest of his teammates were tied up.

'Looks like I'm on my own for now' Dean thought to himself. Logan left Dean to handle the situation by himself, not knowing the Brotherhood had someone new with them and that his team had been taken out.

"What took you so long?" Daken asked.

"Oh I just went to the store to buy you some deodorant, but I couldn't find one that was strong enough to mask your smell." He said mocking him.

Daken grinned, "Talk all you want, you're just giving me more reasons to beat on you"

Dean came closer to him, "Then let's do this" he said getting into his stance.

"Yeah let's" Blob said.

"No!" Daken reacted immediately, "I fight him alone, anybody who interferes with our fight will regret it" he said getting into his own stance getting closer to Achilles.

"But Mystique said-"Toad was about to say.

"I don't care what Mystique said! I fight him alone or not at all" Daken said.

Achilles and Daken stare each other down, waiting to see who's going to make the first move.

Finally the silence is broken by Achilles as he rushes forward.

Achilles jumps up and attacks with a high kick and as Daken blocks it he continues with a right punch which Daken catches with his hand.

Daken swings at him with his other hand but Achilles ducks and then jumps over an incoming sweep.

As Achilles is in the air he goes for a kick to the head but Daken ducks underneath it using one hand to keep him off the ground.

Daken goes to sweep Achilles as he lands with one arm keeping his body up but Achilles saw the incoming attack and moved just far enough that the sweep couldn't touch him.

Achilles then uses his arm to launch himself up over and behind Daken for a swing with his right leg.

Daken ducks underneath it and then blocks an incoming elbow that was aimed at his neck. He then throws Achilles away from him but Achilles lands safely on the ground before rushing back in.

Achilles starts throwing fast punches testing his opponents' defenses.

Daken blocked whatever attacks came at him and returned some of his own.

Achilles blocked the incoming attacks but as one got through his defenses he acted quickly and kicked Daken in the jaw.

Both of their attacks collided simultaneously and they both immediately leaped back for breathing space.

"They're both so fast" Avalanche said.

"Still faster" Quicksilver said.

Achilles and Daken both stared at each other and waited to see who was going to blink first.

Daken rushed forward but was stopped by Achilles' attacks. He blocks every one of them and kicks Achilles in the chest sending him skidding back.

Achilles rushes back at him pulling back a heavy right fist and Daken prepares to block it. But at the last possible second Achilles comes up with a powerful knee to the gut and proceeds with a kick to the chest that sends him flying.

Daken is on a collision course with a car and seems as if he's going to crash in it but he jumps off the car and lands back on the ground, "Sorry, but did you really think that was going to work?"

"Ha, I won't fall for your cheap pranks" Achilles replied, "I knew all along that it wouldn't be that easy to take you out."

Daken shrugs, "I thought it would be funny to play a little joke since you weren't fighting me seriously."

"Only because you aren't either" Achilles said.

"Well then the warm up is over, time for the real fight" he said simply standing there.

"Bring it on" Achilles said getting into his stance again.

Achilles used his top speed to cover the distance between them in a second. He punched Daken in the face with his full strength.

Daken's head cocked back from the force of he hit and he was forced to take a step back, only one.

Achilles stood there waiting for his opponent to do something besides stand there.

Daken rose his head revealing a trickle of blood that travels down the side of his mouth. He wipes the blood off his mouth with his hand and grins, "All too easy"

Achilles wasn't prepared for the fast front kick that hit him right in the gut, followed up by an elbow to the face and a kick to send him flying. He crashed right into a pile of scrap, 'Ok note to self, don't stand so close to him' he grabs his aching head, 'and get better healing abilities' he got up only for Daken to continue his assault.

Achilles tried block as many blows as possible but his opponent's superior speed and strength were simply too much for him.

Daken throws an overhand right to the jaw followed by a left elbow to the gut as he spun. He then goes for a kick to the midsection but it is caught by his opponent, Achilles grabs Daken's leg and start's spinning him around in circles faster and faster until he releases him into an old thrashed car.

Achilles quickly presses his momentary advantage and goes to beat on Daken while he's down but he kicks Achilles in the chest sending him a few feet back, enough of a distraction for Daken to sweep his opponent's legs from under him.

He then starts to beat on Achilles while he's down but Achilles grabs his hands stopping him from hitting him anymore.

They both struggle to try and overpower the other but before they can see who the winner is Achilles head-butt's Daken and proceeds with a right hook to the jaw getting Daken off him.

They both get up still ready to fight.

Achilles notices all the wounds that had opened up on Daken's body when he crashed into the car before had healed. Not good.

Achilles felt something trickle down his lip. He wipes it with his hand and see's that it's blood, he squeezes his fist in anger and his face shows his rage.

Daken grins at his success at humiliating him.

'This doesn't look good, not at all. If I'm going to have any hope of getting out of here alive, I need to use it.' Achilles unzips his vest and tosses it to the side, he doesn't want anything getting in his way.

"Looks like this is getting interesting" Phantazia said.

Achilles's whole mood changes right then and there. He goes into a completely different stance, he stands upright with his hands ready and slight but constant movement with his feet, Jeet Kune Do at its best. His eyes change along with his stance, not many people have ever seen Dean look at someone like this, not even Logan has pushed him this far.

Achilles made the first move, his punch was aimed for the center of Daken's chest. Daken brought up his arms in a cross pattern to block, Achilles's fist struck soundly against the block, neither fighter flinching as they tested one another's strength.

Daken then quickly pushed his arms forward, in between Achilles's fists, and spread them wide. Now with a wide opening to attack, Daken kicked upwards into his opponent's gut. But Achilles brought up his knees to meet Daken's at just the last second. His thick, muscular hips absorbed all the impact of the blow as the two pounded their knees into each other. Achilles could feel his bones aching from the impact.

Daken quickly punched him in the stomach with his left but his right, aimed for the face, was blocked. Achilles jumped off his chest trying to get some space but Daken dashed forward and launched an immediate barrage of punches at his opponent. Each blow collided with Achilles' defenses with the crushing weight of a mountain, and he found that he was the one being pushed back this time.

Daken sees an opening and sidekicks Achilles in the midsection, when the kick connected there was a crack noise, a broken rib. Dean slowly backed away holding his side in pain.

Daken seeming as if he were enjoying himself thoroughly so far, walked towards him and grinned before launching himself at Achilles again.

Achilles acted quickly and grabbed a sizable piece of scrap and threw it at Daken. Its speed, however, was laughable to Daken. With a simple swipe from his right arm, he sent the piece of scrap spinning away over his shoulder. But that was when Achilles's real attack came.

Achilles had moved himself behind Daken and swung a hard uppercut into his foe's back. Daken's grin still there, he dodged it with ease, turned, and he swung at Achilles with greater speed than before. Catching him full on the jaw.

Achilles tried to counter attack but Daken caught his punch and used his left leg to attack. Achilles was knocked into the sky, Daken's attack followed swiftly but wasn't what Achilles was expecting.

Daken launched himself off the ground and quickly closed the distance between him and Achilles. Daken then started to pummel him mercilessly until he ended their brief aerial battle with a double axe handle to the head sending him crashing down to the ground.

Achilles collided with the solid ground kicking up clouds of dust. As the dust cloud cleared he could see a black figure from his blurry vision coming towards him fast. The X-man seemed to be caught, beaten, for that one second. But before Achilles could pick himself up, Daken smashed into his lying corpse, breaking three more of his ribs, knocking the wind out of him and making him spit out blood. Achilles' eyes almost popped out of his skull from the amount of force of that blow.

Daken then grabbed Achilles' leg and threw him into a pile of scrap trashing his body even further.

Achilles uses one hand to try and lift his body off the ground, 'What the hell do I do now?' he thought. Achilles holds his ribcage to try and keep himself from passing out from the pain, 'I might not like it, but this guy is just too much for me to handle alone. I need my team' he looks over to his teammates who were still out cold.

Achilles looked over to Daken and spotted him approaching ready for more. It was clear that Daken had superior speed, strength, and he had a much better healing factor than Dean did. Dean might have the slight advantage in technique but not enough to make that much of a difference. Achilles rose to his feet panting and holding his side trying to comfort himself as much as possible. He used his free hand to wipe the blood dripping from his mouth.

Achilles tried coming up with a plan but everything seemed hopeless at this point. But out of the darkness that he was trapped in, rose a golden light of hope. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Jean waking up. As long as she could remain quiet he might be able to pull this off. He tries to make eye contact with her without giving himself away, Jean noticed her surroundings and kept her eyes half closed make herself look like she's still out. Now all he has to do is come up with a plan.

He is shaken from his thoughts by an upward kick from Daken. He flips back avoiding it, feeling the sting of his broken ribs but trying his best to ignore it, and comes in for a leg sweep as he hoists himself with one hand. Daken jumps over the sweep and goes for a kick to the face, Achilles luckily managed to bring his arm up to his head in time and block but had to remove his other hand from holding his side causing a shock of pain to coarse through his body. Daken spotted the pain on Achilles's face so he aimed a punch for his midsection which hurt ten times more now than it did before.

Achilles uses the full strength of his legs to leap straight up into the sky trying to get away from Daken but he follows. Daken quickly catches up with Achilles, grabs his leg and pulls him down sending Achilles straight back down.

Achilles lands face first on the ground and can feel his muscles losing energy fast. 'Gotta get up' Achilles thought as he willed his free arm to lift up his body.

Right as he got up a massive overhand punch hit him in the jaw with devastating power. Achilles felt a crack in his mouth, his jaw was broken. Achilles drops to the floor from the burst of pain and Daken continues to mercilessly beat on Achilles' body.

Again Achilles grabs both of his opponent's hands and stops him from throwing anymore punches. He tries to push him off with all of his strength but his efforts seem futile.

"What's the matter meat bag, tired?" Daken said grinning. He pushed Achilles' hands lower showing his superior strength. "All that talk about you being a good fighter when in reality you fight like a puny human" Daken forced Achilles' hands to the ground. "You're nothing but a waste of my time" Daken head-butt's Achilles splitting his head open on his forehead. Daken placed his knee over Achilles's gut and proceeded to push down.

Achilles, almost passing out from the pain, managed to knee Daken in the back, taking him by surprise, and successfully knocking him off.

Achilles notices something from the corner of his eye, he jumps back avoiding an overhand punch from Daken as he punched into the ground.

Achilles lands on the ground safely and quickly tries to come up with a strategy of some sort, 'Come on look around, there has to be something that can turn the tables' he looks at Avalanche and see's Cyclops's visor hanging from his belt, 'why would he be carrying that?' he looks back over to his teammates and notices something that he missed before. Cyclops was never unconscious, they just took his visor preventing him from using his powers. 'Now I got an idea' he grins inwardly.

Achilles leaps at Daken with an overhand left punch, 'How easy' Daken thought. He ducked underneath the punch and sent a devastating blow to Achilles's gut knocking the breath out of him. Achilles's eyes bulge out from the impact of the hit and the pain that is constantly there from his broken ribs, and Daken finishes with a kick to the chin sending him flying right into where his teammates are standing.

They weren't ready for this sort of surprise so none of them manages to get out of the way. He crashes into them leaving only Blob standing, Achilles rushes back in.

Daken hits Achilles with a kick to the side of the face sending his body skidding along the ground.

'No you can't let him win' Jean thought.

He tries to get back up holding his head from the pain, when Daken slowly walks up to him and throws an upward kick.

Achilles dodges it and flips back a good distance to get some space, when he stops he finds another kick to the face sending him skidding face first into the ground.

Daken takes his sweet time walking over to Achilles's lifeless body.

'Dean please get up' Jean thought losing hope.

Dean turns his head just enough for him to look at Jean.

'Huh, he's ok?'

He shows her Scott's visor in his hand.

'He's got Scott's visor!'

He uses his hand and points to his head, and then points to the rest of his team.

'Wait what…..oh telepathy!' she realized what he was trying to say.

As Daken stands over Achilles's unmoving body he's surprised when all of a sudden it jumps into action and sends a fast kick that almost hit him. Daken replies with an angry punch to the jaw which further aggravates Achilles as well. They both start trading blows trying to outclass the other but in his current condition Achilles couldn't do much.

'Come on guys wake up!' Jean spoke in her teammates minds, 'Dean needs our help, and he's all alone out there fighting a losing battle.'

One at a time her teammates start to slowly wake up.

'Don't let them know we're awake yet, we need to wait for the right moment to strike.' Jean said.

Achilles is hit with an elbow which staggers him back before going back at it.

'Why do we have to wait for Dean? Let's just bust out of here' Evan thought.

Scott cringes at the thought, 'No Jean is right, we have to wait for Dean's signal. And in case you've forgotten I don't have my visor'

'Oh, whoops' Evan thought.

'Show us what's going on' Kurt thought.

'Yeah ah wanna see' Rogue agreed.

'Ok' Jean shows the mental image of the fight.

Daken catches two fists aimed at him and their hands lock in a test of brute strength. Unfortunately Achilles is running extremely low on energy and his opponent is superior in strength and starts gaining ground fast. Achilles goes to do what Wolverine once did to him, he falls back and kick his opponent in the gut only for Daken to see it coming and head-butts him feeling the sharp sting of pain from where his head split open before.

Daken then throws his most powerful underhand punch he can muster hitting his opponent in the gut colliding with the ground simultaneously. This would be the definition of being stuck between a rock and a hard place, of pain.

Daken grabs his stunned foe by the neck and squeezes hard, Achilles starts to choke. It was already hard enough to breath with all the blood coming out of his mouth.

'Oh no' Kitty thought afraid of what might happen.

"Well it's been fun, but everything has to end at some point." He pulls back his right fist looking like he's going to punch him when all of a sudden four dark metal claws come out of his knuckles.

Achilles has to say that he did not see that coming. And he must admit that he's feeling something he honestly never felt before in his life…..fear. His body is surrounded with cuts and bruises, he has multiple broken ribs, a cracked jaw, and his face is barely recognizable. He jas been utterly humiliated and defeated.

"Time to die meat bag!" he goes for the kill.

'NOOOOO!' Rogue screamed.

The claws hit Achilles's chest but do nothing, Daken looks confused, he tries over and over again but his claws cannot pierce his opponent's skin. If only they were adamantium.

Achilles manages to use his full strength to punch his opponent in the groin sending pain throughout his body. He then kicks his opponent with both of his legs in his gut sending him flying. "Jean now!" he yells.

Shadowcat phases them all through the bent metal bar and they charge at the enemy.

Rogue absorbs Phantazia's life force rendering her unconscious.

Shadowcat phases Fever Pitch underground from the neck down leaving him unable to use his powers.

Toad shoots his tongue at Spyke who right now is holding one of his bone staffs, the tongue wraps around the staff "Hey wart man, lick this!" he throws Toad over him using leverage from his staff and he lands face first into a the roof of a car knocking him out.

Achilles wastes no time. He struggles to get up but when he does, Achilles quickly knocks out Avalanche using the rest of his energy and collapses to the floor.

Marvel Girl uses her telekinesis to keep Quicksilver from moving, "So what happens now red? We've done this before, you know you can't stop me." He says with a cocky grin.

"Oh I won't have to do anything, your friend is going to do all the work for me." She said.

Quicksilver is confused as to what she's talking about when all of a sudden he hears above him, "Look out below!" he looks up to find Blob falling right for him. He looks at Marvel Girl, "I hate you" and Blob falls right on top of him.

Nightcrawler teleports by Marvel Girl and they give each other a high five.

"Um guys? Still can't see here" Cyclops said.

Achilles notices Daken getting back up looking furious, he holds Cyclops's visor in his open palm "I think you dropped something Scott"

Daken sees this and runs towards Cyclops.

Marvel Girl telekinetically moves the visor to Cyclops's eyes, "Scott open your eyes!" she yells.

He trusts her and he does, he releases his eyebeams into the visor sending an optic beam straight ahead which hit Daken head on sending him flying away and out of the scrapyard.

All of the X-men come together and celebrate, "Yeah we won!" "We rock!" "Nobody messes with the X-men!"

Rogue looks around but can't find the person who they owe their victory, "Where's Dean?"

They all spotted him laying lifeless on the ground.

"Oh my! We need to get him back to tha institute!" Rogue said as she ran over to him.

**At the Institute**

"**Well it's been fun, but everything has to end at some point.**" Daken pulls back his right fist looking like he's going to punch Dean when all of a sudden four dark metal claws come out of his knuckles and stare right at him.

Dean was frozen in place, he couldn't move an inch.

"**Time to die meat bag!**" Daken goes for the kill.

Dean woke up from his dream in the infirmary. He looks over his body and can see no trace of injury of any kind. How long was he out? A day? All his broken bones even healed so it must have been at least a day.

But even though all his wounds healed, Daken had left a scar in his mind. "**Time to die meat bag!**" a scar of his defeat. Dean squeezes his fist and punches a hole through a wall in a fit of rage.

* * *

Jean and Rogue both were curious as to how Dean was doing. He skipped school due to his condition.

When they arrived in the infirmary they didn't see Dean anywhere.

"Where do you think he went?" Jean asked.

Rogue thinks about it but can't seem to understand what happened, "I don't know, let's try the Danger Room."

They enter the observation room to find Logan watching Dean, using the gravity simulation.

"There he is" Jean said, "I'm going to go talk to him"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, red" Logan said.

She stops in her tracks, "Well why not?"

Logan takes a good look at Dean, "When the kid came in here earlier he looked pissed off, more than I've ever seen him. I didn't know why at first but I do now. He lost didn't he?" Logan asked.

"No we didn't, we came close to losing but in the end we beat them" Rogue said.

"No you're not understanding, I said did _he_ lose?" Logan asked again.

Both girls seemed to be silent at realizing what he meant.

"That's what I thought. Now tell me what happened exactly" Logan said.

They go through the whole story from beginning to end.

"But why would he just leave the infirmary so early? Ah don't get it" Rogue said.

"He lost, the team itself might have come out victorious but without your help he would have lost that fight for sure. Hell he would have been killed" He sighs, "Losing isn't an easy thing to experience, especially for those who are used to winning. The kid spends day and night trying to be the best and all off a sudden some chump comes along and just beats him, that hurt him more than any punch ever could."

Rogue looks inside at Dean and can see the anger and ferocity on his face as he battles an invisible opponent, struggling to keep up with the increased gravity.

"His pride was hurt more than anything yesterday, I'd say that this will give him a new incentive to try and get better" Logan admitted.

Dean struggled as he pushed up and down on his one handed pushups, his angry and determined face showed that he simply wouldn't allow his muscles to give out. 'I will get better, and I will show him who the better fighter is when I do.'


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

_A new friend_

Dean walked into the warehouse and knocked on the newly fixed metal door.

The gap in the door slides open revealing someone's eyes, "What's the password?"

"Don't make me brake the door again kid" Dean said.

"Oh it's you" he opens the door, "Come right in" he said with a little fear in his voice.

"Thanks" Dean proceeded downstairs and into the main hall.

"Hey! Look whose back" Billy shouted sitting on a lazy chair where Gorgeous George's throne used to be.

"Nice to see you too Billy" Dean said.

Billy speeds over to him, "Hey can you do me a favor?" he whispers in his ear.

"What is it?" Dean asks skeptically.

"A lot of the guys think that I lost the fight between us, so can you just clear it up for me that I won the fight?" he asked.

Dean gave him a blank stare.

"What?" Billy asked.

He pinches the bridge of his nose, "Just, no comment" he sighs.

Tim walked in, "Is he being stupid again?"

"Yup" Dean agreed.

"Hey!" Billy was offended.

"And didn't I say that you weren't going to have a throne here?" Tim asked Billy.

"But it matches my title as the King of Thieves" Billy complained.

"You're the king of Dorks now get off" Tim kicks him off and drags the lazy chair out of the room.

"Anyways, you guys heard about that rich guy moving into town with his new company?" Dean asked.

Billy stands there and thinks for a second, "Rich guy…..rich guy…..hmmm…..oh you mean that rich guy that just moved into town?"

Dean smacks himself, "Yes, that one."

"Yeah I sent a couple of my guys to scout it out, why?" Billy asked.

"I'm not sure, I just get the feeling that maybe we should go check it out." Dean said.

"I wouldn't mind" Tim said.

"Hey if you want to then why not?" they started walking out, "Hey you guys could be sidekicks!" Billy said to them with enthusiasm.

"Dream on" Dean said punching his shoulder.

"Ow! That hurts" Billy said.

"It's not my fault you're weak" Dean said.

"Oh weak huh, ok then" Billy zips by him.

"Hey give me back my phone!" Dean said chasing him.

"Oh, who's this Jean" Billy said going through his messages.

"Come back here!" Dean yelled.

Tim just watched and laughed.

* * *

Jean was simply relaxing in her room enjoying the silence. Well as silent it can be with multiple people thinking really hard around her. That tended to be a bit of a drag.

She had nothing to do because her boyfriend decided to investigate the arrival of the Advanced Idea Mechanics Corporation in Bayville. Its president, Andrew Forson, was going to be at the opening and was going to give some fancy speech about what his company represents.

Jean had no interest in that matter so she decided to stay home, she tried to convince Dean to stay but when he makes up his mind, there's no stopping him.

Jean rolls on her bed and feels a slight sting by her ribcage. She goes to look but the angle of where she felt it is limiting her vision for it. She levitates her handheld mirror and lifts her shirt to find a bruise. Probably one from the last fight they had with the Brotherhood, no doubt from that skanky girl Phantazia.

Jean usually doesn't have strong negative feelings for other people due to her kind nature but this is the only exception where she does. Jean hates her not only because she constantly gives her bruises, but mostly because she made out with her boyfriend. It sickens her to think that Dean was forced into it, whether he enjoyed it or not, to just satisfy her needs.

Maybe she'll lay off him now that that other guy Daken is with them. He seemed like her type, somehow. Plus he seemed to meet her needs, a cute guy with strong body to use as she wants.

Not that Jean finds him good looking or anything, she might have considered him cute if not for his sadistic looks that make him look like a cold-hearted killer and how he almost beat her boyfriend to death. With his recent fight with Daken he still might have not recovered mentally and left him scared.

But anyways with Dean in her life there's no way she's going to get jealous over some other guy. Now that Jean thinks about it she really scored the jackpot, a very cute guy with a hot body who's funny and really smart even though he chooses not to show it most of the time.

'I wonder what he's doing right now.' Jean thought. She took out her phone and called him.

"Hey Jean" he picked up.

"Hey!" she answered excited to hear his voice, "How's it going?"

"Well Mr. Forson started his boring speech and it seems as if it might go on forever" Dean sounded bored.

"Oh well in that case why don't you just come home?" She suggested.

"I'm actually considering that, I didn't think it would be this—"he paused and stopped talking.

"Dean? Dean what's wrong?" she asked getting worried.

"I need to go, there's trouble" He said sounding urgent.

"Dean wait what—"he hangs up but before he did there was a loud gunshot sound.

Jean fears the worst might have happened.

* * *

Dean, Billy and Tim had arrived at the opening of the Advanced Idea Mechanics building. It seemed that the event had drawn quite a crowd.

"This guy must be pretty important for all these people to be here" Billy said pushing through the crowd.

"Yeah, I heard that his company is the lead in technology today." Dean said pushing through people to get in front.

"I thought that guy Stark was?" Billy said.

"He obviously is, but he's an exception. I mean c'mon, he's Iron Man who can compete with that?" Tim admitted.

They reached the front of the crowd just in time for President Andrew Forson's intro speech. Mr. Forson walked up on stage. He had dark hair that was slicked back and was wearing an elegant blue suit with his wide frame glasses to complete his look.

Dean didn't know why but he just didn't like the vibe coming off this guy.

Next to him was a woman who was dressed just as elegantly and a teenage boy with black hair that seemed out of place for some reason.

Andrew Forson stepped up to the microphone, "I'm glad that you all could be here today to see the opening of the Advanced Idea Mechanics building here in Bayville. Our goal is to expand our superior knowledge of technology throughout the world and I believe Bayville is the perfect place to start expanding."

Hands rose up and reporters started pushing and shoving for questions.

"Mr. Forson where else do you plan on expanding?" one of the reporters asked.

"So far all me and my colleagues have thought of is Colorado, New Jersey, Asia, Canada, Europe, Haiti, India, Sudan and Boca Caliente." He answered with a cocky attitude.

"Excuse me Mr. Forson what was that last part?" another asked.

"Boca Caliente, it's an island republic in the Caribbean for which business is low and we wish to bring profits to its republic."

"Mr. Forson, do you have any comments on the rumors of your technology being stolen from Stark Enterprises?" another asked.

That question seemed to hit home and get a reaction out of him.

"I'm only going to say this once, our technology is original and we did not steal it from Mr. Stark. We wouldn't need to anyways, his primitive arc reactor technology won't even compare to the things we will create here. Now are there any other questions?" he said sternly.

One more reporter raise their hand, "Will you be staying in Bayville?"

"Yes" he answered motioning his hand for the woman to come up, "Me and my wife will actually be staying here in the building itself so I can oversee the development."

"And our son" The woman says dragging him up.

Mr. Forson clears his throat, "Step son, that is" he says with distaste towards him which earns him a glare from his wife.

"Wow, that was ice cold" Billy whispered to Dean.

"I know" Dean replied.

Mr. Forson ignored and continued talking about something about his company. Dean lost interest and started daydreaming.

All of a sudden his phone rang. He checked to see who it is and see's that it's Jean so he picks up.

"Hey Jean" he said.

Billy started making kissy faces to annoy Dean.

"Hey!" she answered excited to hear his voice, "How's it going?"

Dean threatened Billy by showing him his fist and Billy stopped, "Well Mr. Forson started his boring speech and it seems as if it might go on forever" Dean sounded bored.

"Oh well in that case why don't you just come home?" She suggested.

"I'm actually considering that, I didn't think it would be this—"he paused and stopped talking.

He heard a click-clack noise, one that would match the pull back of a rifle. He looks around and spots someone on top of the roof of the building across the street.

"Dean? Dean what's wrong?" she asked getting worried.

Dean puts two and two together and realizes what's about to happen, "I need to go, there's trouble" He said sounding urgent.

"Dean wait what—"he hangs up.

"Everyone get down!" he yelled jumping in front of the trio on stage when out of nowhere there was a very loud gunshot that startled the people and sent them running and panicking.

Dean had covered the three on stage hoping his hard skin might protect him and them but he never felt any pain. He looked back on the rooftop and the person there before was gone. He looked at his shoulder where it seems that the bullet grazed his jacket.

"I think the shooter is gone Mr. Forson" Dean said getting up, he signaled Billy to go check and Billy ran off at a human pace to so he doesn't attract attention. Tim went up on stage and helped Dean get the trio standing.

They all get up, "Well thank you young man, I owe you my life" Mr. Forson said.

"_We_ owe him _our_ lives" His wife corrected him.

"Yes whatever" he reaches into his pocket, "Here is something from me" he takes out a 100 dollar bill and gives it to him.

Dean looks at it and laughs inwardly, "its ok sir you don't need to give me that, it was my pleasure to help."

Mr. Forson seemed surprised at that, "Well good day to you then" he walked into the building nonchalantly like nothing had happened with his wife running after him complaining about his behavior.

"No offense man, but your stepdad is a real douche" Dean told the dark haired youngster. Dean got a good look at him up close, he had straight black hair that just went forward in a boring way, to be fair he was a few inches taller than Dean, he had onyx colored eyes, but he was wearing a suit which didn't seem to go with him and he looked extremely uncomfortable.

"I know, I really hate him" the boy said genuinely,

"Thanks for saving us, oh and by the way I'm Jonathan. But everyone calls me Jon" He held out his hand.

Dean shook his hand, "Just trying to help"

Billy came running back, again at a human pace, "The shooter is gone". If he had ran at full speed Billy would have caught the shooter.

"That's too bad, but the police will handle it" Tim said and right on queue they showed up asking questions but they let the teens go eventually. Jon actually invited them back to the building to hang out, he seemed like he was very lonely and since Dean technically saved his and his mother's life he counted as a friend.

The three of them were walking towards Mr. Forson's office so they can ask where to find John but they stopped when they heard commotion from inside the room. It sounded like Mr. Forson and his wife were arguing about something, and they were really going at it.

"What do you think is going on?" Billy asked.

"No idea, those two seem to have lots of things to argue about as it is, and we're not counting the stuff we _don't_ know about." Dean said listening through the wall.

All of a sudden the doors open to show a very aggravated mother, "Oh, boys, we weren't expecting you." She said surprised to see them.

"Um, Jon invited us over" Dean said.

"Oh uh well Jon must have went downstairs, you might find him in the gym" she said.

* * *

Jon was inside the gym trying to let out some of his anger on the heavy bag. This seemed like the only place he could really find peace after his arguments with his stepfather.

If it weren't for his mother who knows what John might have done to him…..no Jon isn't like that, even though his favorite way of letting out stress is to punch something he would never purposely hurt somebody, he just doesn't have it in him.

Jon punches the heavy bag repeatedly holding back his true strength so he doesn't damage it, 'Why do I have to be so weak?' the bag started swinging back and forth from the force of his punches.

'Why couldn't I be born with a ruthless heart so I wouldn't have to worry about control?' the chain hook in the ceiling starts to crack.

'Why can't these monsters just leave me alone? Why? Why?! WHY?!' he punches the heavy bag using some of his true strength and the bag rips off its chain and goes flying across the room.

All of a sudden Dean, Tim and Billy walk in, "Hey Jon you in here whoa!" Billy moves out of the way of the flying bag.

Dean manages to catch the incoming bag so it doesn't hurt anybody and then the three teens stare at Jon.

"Um, I…" Jon had no clue what to say, he wasn't expecting them to barge in on his workout.

"No wait, its ok Jon" Dean said quickly so he doesn't freak out or something, "Just calm down"

"What you saw, I—"

"Don't worry, you'd be surprised at what others can do" Dean Looks at Billy, "Show him"

Billy zipped across the room and then zipped back, "Ta-da!"

"Wow" Jon looked amazed.

"Hey Jon heads up!" Dean tosses him back the bag using his full strength so it goes flying fast.

Jon catches it with ease, "Whoa you're strong too" he looks at Tim, "What can you do?"

"I'm smart" he said.

"Oh" Jon said like it sounded boring.

"Why does nobody respect the brain?" Tim complained.

"Later Tim" Dean said, "So Jon, how did you get your strength?" he asked.

"I was born with it, but my mother tells me I got it from my father" Jon said.

"Do you know who your father is?" Tim asked.

"No, he left when I was a baby" Jon admitted.

Dean, Tim and Billy looked at each other and knew they were thinking the same thing.

"Alright Jon, we're about to let you in on a little secret" Dean said.

* * *

_A few minutes later after thoroughly explaining everything_

* * *

"It all makes sense now" Jon said, "But who do I belong to?" he asked.

"There are lots of possibilities, but we don't know for sure" Tim said.

"Maybe he's the son of Zeus, Hercules had super strength too right?" Billy said.

"An obvious candidate, but still we can't prove anything right now." Dean said, "But why don't you come with us and see our hangout spot? It would be great"

"I don't know, it's getting pretty late" Jon said.

"C'mon, what's life without a little adventure right?" Billy said.

"Best thing you've said all day" Tim said, "But you should totally come with us"

"I guess, but let's not make it too late" Jon said.

"We'll try" Dean said grinning inwardly.

**Back at the institute **

Rogue seemed very bored today. She wasn't in the mood to read, and she wasn't in the mood to work out either. Today would have been a perfect day to hang out with a specific someone, cough-cough Dean, but today he was preoccupied with the opening of that company that Rogue forgot the name of.

Even though he might have otherwise done something with Jean, Rogue still felt like his presence in the house would have made her feel better. Plus she's still worried about Dean's recovery, his body might be good as new but who knows what losing that badly did mentally to him. But Rogue would never know without coming right out and asking him, Dean knows how to hide his feelings well most of the time.

Rogue checks the time, 10:03, it seems a little late for Dean to still be out since he left so early. He should have come home by now, 'maybe Jean knows something' she thought.

Rogue walks over to Jean's room and knocks, "Come in" she heard.

Rogue walks in, "Uh hey Jean"

"Rogue" Jean gets up off her bed surprised at who showed up at her door, "Do you need something?" she asked.

"I was wondering if ya heard from Dean at all" Rogue said.

"Well uh I talked to him a while ago but he hung up in a hurry saying there was trouble. He sent me a text a few hours ago saying that he was fine but that he was going to be late." Jean said.

Rogue chuckles, "That boy really is a magnet for trouble"

* * *

Jon's mother entered his room, she was worried for her son. He left with his new friends a couple of hours ago and he hasn't returned or even called for that matter. It was after midnight which worried her further because Jon never stayed out this late, but it could be that Jon is growing up and he's finally found some friends he can relate with. She just hopes that Jon can control himself and not reveal his unnatural strength.

Ever since he was a boy, it was clear that Jon was special. From birth his strength was clearly higher than any other toddler's, and as he grew with age so did his power.

She remembers the time when Jon accidentally flipped over a car when he was 12, he wanted to get something he dropped underneath it and he overdid it.

Suddenly Jon's mother feels like she's going to pass out from exhaustion so she takes refuge in Jon's bed.

* * *

"THAT WAS AMAZING!" Jon yelled out leaving the hideout with his fellow Half-bloods.

"You know for a quiet guy you can have a lot of fun when you want to." Billy admitted.

"I don't think I've ever had this much fun in my life!" Jon was beyond excited to have left his boring new home to hang out at the hideout.

"It really blows a person's mind, especially when they haven't experienced true freedom." Tim said.

"I literally did whatever I wanted, and I didn't have to hide my secret from you guys which made it even better." Jon said.

"You see what the smallest thing can do to affect the way you act?" Dean asked him.

"I know it's weird, but a good weird." Jon admitted, "Oh man what time is it?" he looks at his phone, "Holly shit its 12!"

"Time really flew by" Billy said.

"I need to get home my mother is probably worried sick" Jon said starting to pick up the pace.

* * *

The four of them arrived at the new AIM building which was Jon's home to find it surrounded with police.

Jon goes up to one of the police officers, "Excuse me officer but what's going on here?" he asked.

"There's been a murder here son, now I'm going to have to ask you to move away from the premises." The officer said.

"No wait my step-father Andrew Forson owns this building" he said quickly.

The officer's face darkens, "Then this concerns you, I have some bad news" he said.

Jon just remembered something, "Hey where is my mother?"

The officer takes off his hat, "I'm sorry I have to tell you this but…your mother is dead"

Jon's face pales and grows an expression that seemed like you just ripped out his soul, "No…..no…..there's no way!" He runs into the building to see with his own eyes.

He runs through the building following the trail of officers which lead to his room but he could see from a distance that it was very bloody and gruesome, he dared not go inside and further scar himself. Jon took a seat on the floor by the doorway and he put his face in his hands.

Dean, Billy and Tim came running after him and stopped right in front.

"What…" Dean was about to ask what happened when he took a peek inside his room and clearly saw every bit of it with his great vision, 'Oh no' he thought to himself.

"What happened man? You're acting like someone d—"Dean put his hand over Billy's mouth and whispered in his ear, "Now would be a good time for you to shut up"

Dean looked at Tim and he understood immediately. Dean then took a seat next to Jon and put his arm around Jon's shoulder, "It's gonna be ok buddy" he rubbed his back as he would to comfort a child, "You're gonna get through this"

Jon lifted his head and looked at Dean showing his red eyes from all the tearing, "Promise me something"

"Anything you need big guy" Dean said trying to comfort him.

"Promise me you'll help me find my mother's killer" He said bluntly.

"I promise" Dean could see the sorrow in Jon's eyes turning to hatred.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

_War bound _

**At the institute**

Dean was in his room, pacing back and forth, alone thoroughly thinking how he was going to deal with his current situation.

The half-bloods had scheduled to meet at the hideout today to discuss what they would do concerning the murder of Jon's mother. They promised they would help Jon with his search, Dean in particular. When he makes a promise he always keeps it.

It had been a couple of days since the incident with Jon's mother and Jon seemed to grow a bit angrier every day. It was scary how, Jon, one of the nicest guys you could ever meet slowly turned into an angry savage overnight.

He hears a knock on his door, "Come in" he said.

Rogue walked in, "Hey" she said.

"Hey" he said not giving her his full attention.

Rogue noticed that something was troubling him, "Something on ya mind?"

"You can say that again" he said pacing back and forth.

She sat down on his bed, "Well what is it?"

Dean felt compelled to explain his situation to Rogue since he hasn't told anyone yet. He was considering telling Jean but he's afraid she might freak out or something. Rogue on the other hand, he feels comfortable with, plus it would help to have an outside opinion.

"It's a weird situation" Dean said. He told her everything that happened to him that day.

"Wow...…that's really sad" Rogue said commenting on what happened to Jon.

"And I'm worried that Jon might do something he'll regret if we find the killer" Dean said.

"Well if and when you find the killer, you're gonna have to make sure he doesn't." She said.

Dean pinches the bridge of his nose, "That's what I'm afraid of. I don't wanna be responsible for that because I might not wanna stop Jon" he said speaking the truth. Dean is not one for showing mercy to killers, his experience with Mystique kidnapping his mother should prove that.

Rogue gets up, "Well if ya'll trying to help him be good then ya gonna have to"

He looks at the time, "I'll keep that in mind but I gotta run" he runs out the door full speed without saying another word.

Rogue mentally sighs, 'That boy. He's handsome but he can be really rude sometames'

**At the hideout**

Jon, Tim and Billy were sitting outside the hideout waiting for Dean.

Jon was pacing back and forth stomping the ground as he did, "Where is he?" he said out loud.

"He said he'll be here" Tim said.

"Well what's taking him so long?" Jon asked aggravated.

"Dean does have a life beyond that of a half-blood Jon, just sit down and wait." Tim said.

Jon took a seat and started tapping his foot. Eventually the ground started shaking from his hard foot tapping.

"Jeez man can you cut that out?" Billy complained.

John gave him a look that said, 'Make me'.

"Or you can just keep doing it, either way is fine by me" Billy said intimidated.

"Who's making quakes?" Dean asked popping in.

"Finally" Jon said getting up, "What took you so long?" he asked.

"I got caught up thinking about this whole thing, sorry" Dean said, "So where do we begin?"

Jon came forward, "I need to know who is responsible for my mother's death, I won't rest until I do. If you guys really want to prove that you're my friends, then you'll help me." he said.

"Ok well I think we all agree to help you, right?" Dean looks at Tim and Billy and they both nod in agreement.

"Ok then, we have to analyze any clues we have at the moment and continue from there." Tim said.

"So what do we got?" Billy asked.

"Well for starters your mother was the wife of a very rich man" Dean said to John, "It's possible that he could have enemies that wanted to either kill or hurt him in some way. You should go talk to your stepdad about that."

Jon's face darkened with only the mention of his step father, and it only got worse when he realized that Dean was right and he would have to have a serious conversation with him.

"Billy, you should search the streets for anyone that knows anything about this" Dean told him.

"Got it, I'll even send out a few of my boys too" Billy said.

"Good thinking." Dean said.

"I could go to the police and find out whatever they've figured out already." Tim said.

"How are you going to do that?" Dean asked.

"Don't worry, I have my ways" Tim said with a smile.

"Alright then, I think I'll go back to where the first incident happened and see if there's any clues we've missed." Dean said, "We've all got our objectives, so keep in touch and we'll meet back here in a few hours."

They split up and all went their separate ways.

* * *

Back at the institute Logan was working on his motorcycle in the garage trying to keep his mind busy and distracted from something that has been haunting him. After Dean had cooled off from the last encounter with the Brotherhood he had a serious conversation with him about this new guy, Daken.

**Flashback**

Dean brought Logan outside so no one else could hear their conversation.

"Look, I didn't want to make a scene in front of everybody but this is serious" Dean said.

"So you're saying he looks 'exactly' like me?" Logan asked.

"An exact copy with some distinct differences" He said.

"Like what?" Logan asked.

"Well for starters he didn't have an adamantium skeleton or I would have felt his punches even more and his claws would have gutted me easily. His natural strength is way higher than yours, he's taller and less hairy." He said, "But besides that the resemblance is uncanny."

"Alright kid, thanks for the info but I don't know what to do with it" Logan said.

"Doesn't it bother you? Or even get you worried that this guy might come after you for some reason?" Dean asked.

"Look kid I appreciate the heads up but I got better things to worry about than lookalikes." Logan said walking away and hiding his true thoughts.

**End Flashback**

Logan may only remember fragments of what happened to him but he knows that they must have sampled a ton of his blood. And the way Dean described this guy he sounds like a new weapon.

Logan got up from his bike and put it upright, he's in no mood to be fixing anything anymore.

He walks to right outside the woods where he can be alone for a little bit. Why does his past have to keep on haunting him?

Logan tries to remember the adamantium process but besides broken fragments all he can remember is the bald man with square glasses staring intently at him through the water tank.

Logan gets aggravated, why would a clone come after him anyways? He had nothing to do with it.

Logan's super sense of smell pick up a slightly familiar scent, one unique to himself and Sabertooth. But it couldn't be…..could it?

Someone jumps out of the bushes and leaps to get the jump on Logan. Logan catches him mid-air and throws him into the ground before unsheathing two of his claws around the man's neck preventing him from escaping.

Logan got a good look at the guy, he was wearing all black jeans and a tank-top with a long black haired Mohawk and a tattoo going down one of his arms.

The guy smirked, "The famous Weapon X, we finally meet"

Logan snarls, "How do you know that name?" a third claw comes out of his knuckles and stops right when it touches his throat.

"I am your legacy" he said looking him in the eyes.

Logan realized who he was, "So you're Daken. What do you want?"

"I came to see who I'm supposed to surpass, and I must say I'm not impressed" Daken said mocking him.

Logan's other hand unsheathed its claws and they pointed at Daken's chest, "What's stopping me from ending your life here and now?"

"It's actually quite simple, I know everything about you." Daken said.

Logan sheathed his claws and clocked him in the jaw, "What do you mean? Explain?!"

Daken's lip started bleeding and he chuckled, "All those memories that you lost a long time ago, I have all of them."

Logan could see the seriousness on his face but didn't want to give away his own surprise, "So what does that mean?"

"It means that I know you won't kill me, James" Daken said startling Logan making him release him.

Daken got up and relaxed his tense throat, "It's obvious in my current state you would kill me, but it won't be long until I'm the better" He started walking away, "Oh and by the way, Wade told me to tell you that he's going to shoot you." He vanished into the forest.

'Who the hell is Wade?' Logan thought to himself.

* * *

Dean was outside the AIM building where the first assassination attempt happened. He looked at where the bullet hit and he tried to remember the exact position where Jon and his mother were standing.

'Hmm that's weird. Unless I'm wrong, from where they were standing the shooter would have missed Jon's mother. But that can't be right, it was a clear shot, how could he possibly miss?' Dean thought.

He went up to the roof where the shooter was standing and it was obvious that this was a good vantage point for a kill. Not easily noticed, perfect view of the AIM building, so what went wrong?

Dean couldn't have been that big of a distraction. He ended up with more questions than answers since he got here. Maybe Jon had better luck finding something out from his stepfather.

* * *

Dean was walking towards Mr. Forson's office when Jon kicked the door down and came stomping out.

"YOU BETTER NOT COME BACK IN HERE!" Mr. Forson yelled out.

"OR WHAT!" Jon yelled as he left.

Dean just stood there not knowing what to say, "Ummm, Jon? Did he tell—"

"He doesn't know anything!" Jon said leaving the area.

'I better not get in the middle of this right now' Dean made his way to Jon's room, or what used to be Jon's room before he moved out. Jon refused to ever sleep in there again.

Even though the room had been cleaned of all the blood the room still stunk of death. Of all places for her to die, it had to be the one place Jon slept and had all his things in. 'Come to think of it, that is a bit strange, why was she in here at that time of night?' Dean thought

'Wouldn't she be in bed or doing something else in the dozens of other rooms they have here? And after the first attempt wouldn't Mr. Forson increase security so something like this never happens again? All this is too complicated' he goes to leave when his nose picks up something peculiar. He follows it to the vent in the upper right corner of the room, he takes of the vent cap and smells something….poisonous maybe? Not exactly poison but something that would affect a normal human weirdly or his nostrils would be flaring right now.

"What are you doing?" he hears behind him.

Dean looks back and see's Mr. Forson standing there, "The vent cap was loose so I was putting it back on" he put it back on.

Mr. Forson eyed him carefully, "What was your name again? Dean was it not?" he asked.

"Yes, sir" he answered.

"If you're searching for Jon, you won't find him here" He said assuming Dean was looking for him.

"Mr. Forson, can I ask you a personal question?" he asked.

Mr. Forson seemed sort of surprised at that, "Go right ahead?"

"Why do you and Jon hate each other?" Dean asked him.

"Hate is a strong word" He tried to talk his way out of this, "Me and Jon don't hate each other we just—"

"With all due respect sir, I'm young but not stupid, there's something going on between you two." Dean said.

Mr. Forson was surprised at how fast Dean picked things up, "Walk with me my boy"

Dean obliged.

"When I first met John's mother I thought she was perfect for me. Beautiful, Strong, independent, loyal, just what I needed out of a woman to support me." Mr. Forson seemed very fond of her, "But unfortunately she came with baggage, her little son Jon." He said with distaste. "That little runt ruined everything for me! My happiness, my inventions, my offspring, MY WIFE!" He was getting enraged but he forced himself to calm down.

That last part didn't quite make sense, how did John ruin his wife? He's probably still emotionally compromised from her death, so Dean dismisses it. "What do you mean by offspring?" he asked.

"Jon's mother refused to have any other children since Jon was so troubled with his unnatural strength and his problem with those annoying beasts that came after him time and time again. He doomed any chance I had to have children with my wife." He said.

"Everything seems a little clearer now" Dean said, "It must have been difficult to deal with"

"Yes well, everything will be right again very soon" He said with a peculiar tone. They finally reached a metal door with a keypad on it, probably restricted area. "Well I'm afraid this is as far as you go, you have a nice day now" he went up to the door punched in a few numbers and entered the room.

"I wonder what he meant by that last part…."

**At the Hideout**

Jon was sitting alone outside waiting for the others, traveling back in time through his memories to the times Andrew had messed with him.

**Flashbacks**

Jon was happily playing with his action figures when all of a sudden a foot steps on one of them and crushes it. He looks up and see's that the foot belongs to his stepfather Andrew, "Ooops" he said with a smirk.

"Why did you do that?! That was my favorite one!" Jon complained.

"Maybe you shouldn't leave your toys laying around, brat" He said.

"I hate you!" Jon kicked Andrew in the leg fracturing the bone.

"Aaahhhh!" Andrew yelled out and fell to the floor.

Jon's mother came running in, "What's going on in here?"

"I think Jon fractured my leg bone when he kicked me!" Andrew yelled out holding his leg.

Jon's mother looked furious, "Jon why would you do that!"

"He stepped on my favorite toy and broke it!" Jon said.

"I accidentally stepped on it" Andrew said cringing from the pain.

"You did it on purpose!" Jon yelled at him.

"JON!" his mother screamed at him, "IF HE SAID IT WAS AN ACCIDENT THEN THAT'S WHAT IT WAS! NOW GO TO YOUR ROOM!"

"But mom—"

"NOW!"

Jon slowly walked away and looked back once, he noticed a sly grin on Andrew's face.

* * *

Jon, his mother, and Andrew were invited over for dinner to a potential business partner of his. They were currently in the living room where there were quite a few priceless objects.

"This one seems interesting" Andrew said looking at a stone with carvings on them.

"Ah yes that one, I picked that up in Egypt a few years ago." The man poured a drink in a glass, "That thing is over 5000 years old, it's priceless"

"Do you know what the writing says?" Andrew asked.

"It supposedly tells the tale of an old warrior" the man sat down and drank his drink.

Jon went up close to get a better look at it, "Do you know his name?" he asked reaching to touch the relic.

The man immediately got up off his seat and stopped Jon from touching it, "Did I mention it's priceless? And yes it says his name on the inscription, his name was **_En Sabah Nur._**"

Andrew seemed intrigued by that name, "Hmmmm interesting…"

"Yes it's an old legend but I think it's nonsense, come now let's discuss things" the man sat back down and Andrew took a seat by next to Jon's mother.

Jon was fascinated with the runestone, he wanted to touch it but he knew the risk of breaking it was too great.

Andrew pulled out a small remote from his pocket and hid it under his arm. He pointed it at the rune stone and it immediately shattered into tiny pieces.

The man got up from his seat and grabbed the fragments with his hands, "What have you done?" He was dumbstruck, "YOU BROKE IT YOU IDIOT!" The man shouted.

"No I swear I didn't touch it" Jon pleaded.

"GET OUT OF HERE YOU IMBECILE!"

Jon's mother got up and dragged Jon outside. As Jon was being dragged out of the room he could see a sly grin on Andrew's face.

"Why did you touch it Jon?!" His mother asked aggravated.

"I didn't!" Jon pleaded.

"Then how did it break?!" She asked.

"I don't know!" Jon said.

His mother sighed, "Why do you always lie about these things?"

"I don't! I'm telling the truth!" He said.

"Look just—just stay outside, I don't want you breaking anything else" she walked back in the room.

* * *

Jon and his mother were never allowed in Andrew's workplace, this would be the first time he would give them a glimpse of what he does.

Andrew punched in a few numbers and a metal door opened revealing a large room full of machines and different sort of contraptions. The room was filled with workers wearing yellow jumpsuits that covered their whole bodies from head to toe not showing even an inch of skin, this was protocol uniform for them.

"So this is where I work on my ideas" Andrew said, "Happy?"

"How come you never showed me this before?" Jon's mother asked.

"Because I didn't want you nagging me with annoying questions like this all the time" he said.

Jon walked up to metal box of canisters full of green liquid, "What do these have in them?" he goes to touch one of them.

Right when he does, Andrew presses a few buttons on some sort of a wrist contraption and the metal box tips over and all the canisters fall out and break.

"Jon what did you do?!" his mother ran over to him.

"I—I don't know, I just touched it once and it tipped over." Jon was confused.

"Do you have any idea how long it took to make those?!" Andrew yelled at him, "Months!"

"Come on Jon let's get out of here before you break anything else" his mother said dragging him out.

After they left the room the door slowly closed, but before it did Jon saw Andrew push a few buttons on his wrist thing and the whole thing that just happened reversed, literally. The canisters reformed with the liquid inside of them and they went right back in the box, and as the door closed Jon could see Andrew's famous sly grin.

**End Flashbacks**

Everyone suddenly shows up at the same time.

"So did anybody find anything?" Jon asked.

"Nobody on the streets knew anything, not a thing" Billy said.

"Well I didn't get anything either, it seems my stepfather doesn't know anything" John admitted.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that" Dean said.

"That's right, I went to the police station, hacked computers, listened in on conversations, and stole important evidence, and it seems that there's only one suspect, your stepfather." Tim said.

"What?" Jon was very confused, "That doesn't make any sense, why would he murder his own wife?"

"That is something we don't know, but look at all the facts. How did somebody get through security when there was an assassination attempt the day before?" Dean said, "And how did they know where your mother would be? They certainly wouldn't have guessed in your room."

"Also none of the cameras even caught a glimpse of the killer, only someone with knowledge of the camera layout could pull that off" Tim said.

"Then let's pay my stepfather a visit" Jon said.

**At the AIM building **

Andrew was silently handling paperwork in his office when all of a sudden his newly attached door opens and his stepson and his friends walk in.

"Ah boys, what brings you here?" Andrew asked.

Billy and Tim drew their celestial bronze weapons and destroyed the cameras in the room.

"What's going on?" he seemed confused.

Jon went to step forward and speak but Dean put his hand in front of him.

Dean takes a seat across from him, "Mr. Forson, I'm going to have to ask you to be completely honest with us, or else…"

"Well what exactly do you want me to tell you?" he seemed surprisingly calm.

Dean took a pen from his desk and examined it, "Did you have Jon's mother killed?"

"What an odd question to ask, so you think I did it, is that it?" he asked.

"Just answer the question" Dean said.

"Before I do may I ask how you came up with this idea?" he asked.

"All the evidence that we gathered point to you and only you. Who else could have let someone slip past security and avoid any sort of detection? Who else could have known that she was in Jon's room? The only thing we don't know is why, and that's why we're here." Tim said.

Andrew bursts out into laughter, "You really are blind aren't you? None of you see clearly"

"Just answer the question! Did you!" Jon shouted.

Andrew didn't say anything, he didn't have to. He just gave him his famous sly grin that gave away everything.

Jon's eyes widened when he realized what that meant, "YOU BASTARD!" he smashed the desk into a million pieces and grabbed him by the throat with one hand, "WHY! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO KILL HER!" his eyes were full of hate for the man that had made his life miserable.

"You still don't get it do you" his words weren't very loud due to Jon's hand wrapped around his neck, "I was never trying to kill her, I was trying to kill you."

Jon dropped him out of shock, "What—what?"

Andrew straightens himself up, "Why in the world would I want to murder my own wife? She's been nothing but kind and caring, you are the one that I wish was dead!"

'I knew the first attempt seemed out of place' Dean thought.

"You little brat you ruined everything for me, I wanted to kill you so you I could be rid of you, but it so happened that for once your mother allowed you to leave with your new friends and she took your place." Andrew said.

"You sent a sedative through the ventilation system in order to keep him unconscious because you knew that he would be hard to kill" Tim figured it out.

"Correct, imagine my surprise when I saw your mother's body in your bed. But I guess some things cannot be avoided…" he seemed less depressed about it.

Jon was enraged, "YOU SICK MANIAC! YOU DON'T EVEN CARE!"

"She served her purpose, now I'm going to move on" Andrew simply said.

Jon lifted him up by his shirt and pulled back his fist, "I'm going to punch a hole through your head"

Dean could see in his eyes that he meant every word of it, and maybe Dean agreed with his method, but when you're looking from the outside in you understand that you have to make the right choice.

"Jon stop" Dean grabbed his fist.

"Why should I?! You know as well as I do that he deserves it!" Jon shouted.

"Yes he does, he deserves to die like the psychotic maniac that he is. If our situations were reversed I wouldn't hesitate to end his life either." Dean admitted.

"Then why should I stop!" Jon asked.

"Because that's not what your mother would have wanted…believe me I was tempted with the same thing and now that I look back on it my mother would have hated me for doing that." Dean said putting his hand on Jon's shoulder, "You know the right choice to make"

Jon looked back into Andrew's eyes and wished he could crush his head into nothing but he realized that Dean is right, she wouldn't have wanted him to be a killer. Jon puts Andrew down and turns his back on him, "Let's go guys"

They all go to leave when they hear, "Not so fast"

They turn around and see Andrew with some sort of gun in his hand, one that they've never seen before, "I'm not about to let you all just leave, now do me a favor and stand still"

"What makes you think you can even hit us?" Billy boasted.

"Well I am a good shot, plus I have an army waiting for you outside my doors" Andrew said.

Dean heard dozens of footsteps outside the doors, "He's not bluffing, so here's what we're going to do, when I give the signal we run like hell" he drew his sword from its scabbard.

"Too late" Andrew went to pull the trigger but before he could Dean threw the pen he was holding from before and it went right into the bullet hole of the weapon resulting it to explode in Andrew's hands.

"Now!" Dean yelled.

They all scrammed out of the room and they encountered the Aim operatives. They were all dressed in the same yellow jumpsuits with machinery on them. Some were holding stun batons and other were holding the same kind of blasters Andrew was using.

"Take 'em down!" Dean yelled and they all sprung their attack.

Dean and Billy took on all of the operatives with the ranged weapons since they could dodge so easily and Tim and Jon took the operatives with the batons.

They easily took apart the operatives but there were more coming.

Dean could hear more footsteps down the hallways, "There are more coming, Jon we need a way out"

"My pleasure" he runs full speed into a nearby wall and runs right through it, "Follow me!" he yells out creating a path for them to follow.

"You know I could see how he could be useful" Billy said running with them.

"Shut up and see if he needs any help" Dean said.

"Right" Billy zipped forward all the way to where Jon was standing in front of an elevator that they needed to take all the way down.

Jon shoved his hands in between the elevator doors and forced them open bending them slightly in the process revealing an empty elevator shaft.

Dean and Tim finally catch up, "Good idea, this is our best bet at getting down" Tim said grabbing something from his belt.

"I don't see why we couldn't just take the elevator down, or even the stairs" Billy said.

"And risk them trapping us? I don't think so" Dean said.

Tim pulled a long line out of his belt and threw it down the shaft as he tied an end by where they were standing, "Ok everyone grab on"

John stepped forward, "I don't need a rope" he jumped into the elevator shaft and bent the metal walls as he landed on them to create handles as he jumped down.

"Me neither but let's hurry it up we have 50 floors down to go" Dean jumped inside the elevator shaft and used his superior agility to leap down wall to wall.

Tim let's Billy go first, "After you my speedy friend"

Billy grabs onto the rope and leaps down using his speed to go down faster and Tim follows.

A couple of minutes later they are still in the elevator shaft.

"Anybody keeping track of what floor we're on?" Billy asked making his way lower.

"I believe we just passed the 15th floor" Tim said.

"You think Dean and Jon reached the bottom yet?" Billy asked

"If not then they're—"he stops as he feels his rope moving from above, "Uh oh"

"Wait what do you mean uh oh?" Billy asked when all of a sudden the rope is cut and they start falling.

A few floors below Dean and Jon could hear Billy and Tim falling.

John takes immediate action and jumps all the way to the bottom from where he was.

Dean manages to catch Tim as he was falling down and Jon catches Billy at the bottom.

"My hero!" Billy said to him, Jon dropped him on purpose "Ow!"

Dean and Tim reached the bottom as well.

Jon forces open the elevator doors and they run out.

"Let's get to the hideout" Dean said, they all exit the building and make a run for it.

**At the institute**

A few hours had passed since their escape Dean had parted ways after deciding that Jon would stay at the hideout with Tim and Billy, he wanted to stay close to the only friends he has, that's why he didn't want to come to the institute when Dean made the offer. Also, Dean agreed to give the guys a few lessons in fighting, Jon especially could use it.

Rogue walked in Dean's room, "Hey how'd it go?" She asked.

"I think it went well" Dean said, "We figured out who the killer was, I successfully prevented Jon from killing anyone, and I got my team out of harm's way"

"Hold on, _your_ team?" She asked with a smile.

"I was pretty much leading them the whole time so yeah, _my_ team" he replied with his own smile.

"So who did it?" Rogue asked ending their smiling moment.

"His stepfather" he said.

"What?" Rogue was surprised, "But why?"

"Turns out that he was trying to get rid of Jon, and his mother was caught in the crossfire." He said, "And after I stopped Jon from punching a hole in his head he had the nerve to send a bunch of guys to try and kill us, and you know the rest."

Rogue understood, "So how is he taking it?"

"He's better than a few days ago for sure but still not the same, this is going to take time" he said, "At this age someone like Jon needs a parent to go to for guidance."

**At the hideout**

Jon was sitting outside alone trying to think things through. What options did he have besides living here with Tim and Billy? None as far he knew. He could go to that institute that Dean talked about but Jon would rather stay with the only people that he knew right know.

This whole thing just made Jon exhausted, his eyelids felt heavy and his stomach growled from hunger. He'd spent a lot of time trying to figure things out on his own but he just wasted precious time.

First he never knew a thing about his father, then he loses the only other parent he has. Life just doesn't seem fair to Jon right now.

All of a sudden a rumble shook the ground; a motorcycle the size of a baby elephant pulled up right in front of Jon. The motorcycle's headlight glared red, its gas tank had flames painted on it, and a shotgun holster riveted to either side, complete with shotguns. The seat was leather—but leather that looked like Caucasian human skin.

The guy on the bike would've made pro wrestlers run for their mommies. He was dressed in a red muscle shirt and black jeans and a black leather duster, with a hunting knife strapped to his thigh. He wore red wraparound shades, and he had the cruelest, most brutal face Jon had ever seen—handsome, Jon guesses, but wicked—with an oily black crew cut and cheeks that were scarred from many, many fights. The weird thing was, John felt like he'd seen his face somewhere before.

As he got up from his motorcycle and walked towards Jon, a hot, dry wind blew through the air. The biker looked at him, Jon couldn't see his eyes behind the red shades, but bad feelings started boiling in his stomach. Anger, resentment, bitterness, Jon wanted to hit a wall. He wanted to pick a fight with somebody, who did this guy think he was?

The biker gave Jon a wicked grin, "So you're Rebecca's kid huh?"

How did he know his mother's name? John should've been surprised, or scared, but instead he felt like he was looking at his stepdad Andrew, he just wanted to rip this guy's head off, "What's it to you?"

"You know who I am, son" the biker said.

"Son?" Jon said the word as if it was a joke, "Yeah right, as if you're a god"

The biker stepped closer, "Then allow me to introduce myself" he grinned and took off his glasses. Where his eyes should've been, there was only fire, empty sockets glowing with miniature nuclear explosions, "I am Ares, god of war"

Jon was frozen still from the fear that was traveling through his body. Jon realized why his face was familiar, because it looked like his own. "You…you're my father….the god of war…but why come now?" he asked.

"I thought it would be a good time to check up on you, since your mother passing away and me not seeing you since you were a baby. And boy did you grow strong!" Ares put his arm around Jon's shoulder, "I hope you know that you get that from me"

"And I suppose I get my good nature from my mother?" Jon asked.

"Yes that is correct, but you're not all good you know. You remember that feeling when you were mad, that anger that burned deep inside you; that itch for battle." The fire in his eye sockets glowed a little hotter, "Your mother may have made you kind but deep down to the core you're just like me."

Jon wanted to punch Ares, but somehow, he knew he was waiting for that. Ares's power was causing his anger. He'd love it if Jon attacked, but Jon wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.

"Well it's been fun seeing you again kid" Ares walks away from John and gets on his bike, "Oh and one more thing, don't you carry a weapon?"

"I never needed to" John said.

"You should, it's a dangerous world out there" Ares holds out his hand and a ball of flames appears. The ball forms into a giant weapon and then he tosses it to Jon, "Here, you're going to need this"

Jon catches the weapon and examines it, it was a giant celestial bronze axe, a perfect weapon to suit his needs. He looks back up only to find his father gone.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

_Skillset_

Daken grabs his stunned foe by the neck and squeezes hard, Dean starts to choke, "**You're so pathetic, you've only won fights against weaklings**" Daken said.

"**That's not true I—I**" Dean struggled to speak.

Daken started beating on him until Dean's vision became red with his own blood, "**Shut up! You're nothing but a clown who wants to be a true fighter!**"

"**I am a fi—**"Dean gets interrupted by a fist to his gut that shatters his spine, "**AAAAHHH!**" the pain cannot be described.

Daken pulls back his right fist looking like he's going to punch Dean when all of a sudden four dark metal claws come out of his knuckles. Dean looks right at them and is afraid of what's going to happen next.

"**Time to die meat bag!**" Daken goes for the kill.

"**No, no, please no!**" Dean begged.

Right as Daken plunged his metal claws into Dean's gut he awakened from his dream, "NO!" He immediately grabbed his stomach as if he was in pain. He looked again and he was fine, he looked all over his body and there wasn't a scratch on him.

Logan runs in his room to check up on him, being the only one who heard the noise. He found Dean laying in his bed, sweating, pale skin, and looking petrified.

"Kid you ok?" Logan asked.

"I…" Dean looked at his hands and they were shaking, but why?, "I'm ok, just a bad dream"

Logan nods but has a confused face on when he leaves.

Once Logan leaves Dean notices the sweat on his body, 'Why am I sweating?' then he notices that he's shacking and his pal skin. 'What's wrong with me?' he asked himself.

**At the Hideout**

Later on that day after Dean had calmed down and returned to normal he was going to meet up with his half-blood friends to work on their fighting skills. Tim and Billy at least seemed like they had some skill with their weapons but physically they didn't seem like much and Jon looks like he doesn't know anything.

So before they would get started Dean wanted to work on the gym they had and place everything around the way he pleased, and maybe add a few things.

Tim, Billy and John walked into their new gym and were fascinated at how quickly Dean fixed the place up.

"This place actually looks presentable" Tim said.

"I can see myself spending a lot of time in here" Jon said cracking his neck.

"Then let's see what you got then" Dean said, "I'm going to fight you one at a time, without any sort of weapons. Tim you can step up first"

Tim put down his Bronze Staff and utility belt and walked over to him. The whole floor of the giant room was covered with mats so they could use the full space.

Dean went into his classic stance, "Begin"

Tim raised his hands to his face so as to try and mimic a sort of boxing stance. He threw a few punches but Dean blocked them with ease. He tried different combinations of fists and feet but they were all blocked by Dean.

Dean then purposely left a weak point in his guard to see if Tim would notice, which he did and tried to exploit it but once again Dean blocked it.

Dean went on the offensive for a little and sent some light kicks and punches to keep Tim on his toes.

Tim struggled to keep up with the barrage of attacks and couldn't block them all so a few connected.

Tim faked a punch and went for a low sweep but Dean did not fall for the trick so he jumped over it and back-kicked Tim knocking the wind out of him.

Dean throws a downward punch to send him to the floor and ends the fight with him standing over Tim.

Dean gives him a hand, "Nice try" he pulls him up, "Billy you're up"

Tim went over to Jon and Billy stepped forward.

"Begin" Dean said.

Immediately Billy zipped over to Dean which was what he expected Billy to do so he sidestepped and tripped Billy sending him flying into some heavy bags.

"I'm ok" Billy said rubbing his head.

"You should always be aware of what your opponent is doing, especially when you have the advantage in speed." Dean said.

"Yeah, yeah, let's continue" Billy said trying again. This time Billy made an effort to stay one step ahead of Dean when it came to speed so it's safe to say he managed to hit him a lot. Unfortunately Billy's light fists don't do any damage to Dean.

Dean manages to catch one of Billy's fists and pulls him closer before sending a punch right for his face.

Billy closes his eyes and cringes ready for the impact but it never came, he opens his eyes to find Dean's fists stopped right in front of his face.

"Alright then, Billy take a seat. Jon you're next obviously" Dean said and Billy sat down next to Tim while Jon stood across from Dean.

"I don't know if this is a good idea" Jon said feeling nervous.

"Don't worry about me, I heal very fast so whatever you do to me will go away eventually. Now begin" Dean went into his classic stance.

Jon charged forward swinging his arms hoping to hit his opponent and end the fight quickly.

Dean must admit that Jon is faster than you would think, for someone his size and his strength you wouldn't expect him to be moving at a fast rate. A lesson to learn for the future, great strength gives some speed too.

But Jon wasn't fast enough to hit Dean when he was trying his best. Dean knew that one hit from Jon could very well take him out, he had to be extra careful with him.

Jon pulled back a fist and launched it aimed at Dean's midsection.

Dean recognized how much force Jon put into that so he grabbed his arm and flipped him over.

Jon landed on the floor on his back but got right back up.

His endurance also seems like it won't be running out any time soon, so letting him burn up all his energy is not an option.

Jon throws a heavy right hook but Dean ducks under it and sweeps his legs from under him. While Jon was on his back Dean got him in an arm-bar to try to get him to submit.

Jon couldn't reach behind him with his free arm so he pushed himself off the ground and went flying upwards towards the ceiling.

Dean let go of Jon at the last second which left Jon to collide with the ceiling. They both landed on the ground but Jon's landing was a little noisier.

Jon jumped right back at Dean, mad by the looks of it.

Dean jumped over John at the last possible second and grabbed him mid-air and threw him on the ground again.

This time Dean grabbed Jon's leg and put him in a leg bar, ready to twist it.

"Give up" Dean told him.

Jon's face turns red with rage and he kicks Dean away.

Dean lands safely on the ground, "Calm down Jon"

Jon charges at him and starts throwing rapid punches to try and break his opponent.

Dean manages to avoid two punches from Jon and grabs his hands, "John, an angry mind is a narrow mind. Calm do—"Dean was cut off from a head-butt from Jon that made him stagger back.

Dean feels his forehead and sees a stain of blood, he squeezes his fist which means he's had enough. "Alright then, you wanna play rough? Fine!"

Dean charges at Jon with renewed vigor.

Dean was moving purely on instinct, dodging Jon's attacks while hitting Jon in specific weak points of the human body. All around the neck, the underarms, and the center of the chest right where the ribcage meets the stomach. Unknown to most fighters, but they are weak spots nonetheless.

Even though Jon was vastly stronger than Dean he gradually started to feel the pain shooting through his body slowing him down. Dean would constantly put all his energy into his fast punches and kicks in order to output his maximum amount of strength.

Slowly but surely Jon's movements started slowing down to the point where he stood in place for a few seconds before falling backwards on the ground.

Billy started clapping, "Bravo!"

Tim and Dean just stared at him.

"What?" he asked.

After Jon pulling himself together and relaxing himself Dean stepped forward, "You all did ok, but it's not enough. Now, I'm going to decide what you're going to learn"

"Why don't we decide for ourselves?" Billy asked.

"Cause our deal is I teach you. You pay me in blood and sweat. And I don't teach you what you want, I teach you what you need." Dean said sternly, "Now what you take from here becomes yours to do with as you wish."

"Sounds fair" Jon said.

"For Jon, I'll teach Boxing and wrestling. Billy I'll teach Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Kick-Boxing. And Tim I'll teach Karate and Judo" Dean said to them, "I'm going to teach you them slowly so you won't be overwhelmed. Now, Billy, give me 1000 sprawls followed by 1000 front kicks" Dean told him.

"But I don't know—"Billy was cut off.

"I'll show you in a minute" Dean told him.

"Jon, come here, I got somethin special for you" He leads him to a hanging chain. He rips a page of paper from a notebook and puts tape on it. "I want you to punch this piece of paper" he attached it to the chain. "Now, your punch has to be perfectly straight and accurate. Use the first two knuckles. Watch" Dean demonstrated by punching the sheet of paper with a fast punch that made a small hole through the middle. "Make a hole in the center of the paper" he replaced the sheet of paper with a new one, "You don't get it done, you don't move on to the next technique. Go" he walked away.

Jon sort of stood there confused as to whether think that this would be too easy or too hard. He positioned himself in front of the paper and punched it. All it did was move. He repeatedly tried.

After Dean showed Billy how to do a sprawl and properly perform a front kick he went over to Tim.

"Alright Tim, let's start with some katas" Dean said.

* * *

A few hours later Dean returned from a little lunch break to find his new students practicing hard, some maybe a little too hard. He looked over to Jon who looked extremely frustrated with the exercise Dean gave him, it seemed like he ripped through half the notebook already.

"Hey Tim, Billy, you guys can take a 5 minute break" Dean told them.

Tim and Billy went outside to get some air while Dean approached Jon.

"Having trouble?" Dean asked him.

Jon punched the paper with hatred and ripped it in half by accident, for like the 8th time in a row, "Damn it! Why did you have me do this! It's a stupid exercise!" Jon was obviously frustrated that he couldn't perform the task correctly.

"You're letting your anger get the best of you, that's not the way to fight." Dean told him.

"What's the point?! What's punching a piece of paper going to do for me?" Jon asked.

Dean sighed, "You're really not grasping the concept of this"

"What concept?!" Jon shouted.

"Control" Dean said with a serious tone, "If someone has enough power as you do then you need complete control over it, which is the first step of learning how to fight correctly."

"But I already have control" Jon complained.

"Do you?" Dean asked, "I spent my whole life learning how to control my strength, I can punch a heavy bag right off its chains just as easily as you can, the difference is that I don't let my emptions take control of my power. You on the other hand let your emotions take over, what happened to you?"

"You know what happened to me" Jon said with a mean look.

"No, I don't. We figured out who killed your mother but even though we can't bring him to justice you still did your best to accept that, something else happened that you're not telling me." Dean told him.

"I don't know what you're talking about" Jon played dumb.

"I'll forget about this for now but eventually you'll need to tell us what's going on with you" Dean said, "Your problems aside, it's obvious you're not ready for this technique, I'll just get right to Boxing then."

* * *

A week had passed since Dean started teaching his friends different fighting styles, Tim and Billy were doing relatively well, Jon not so much.

He found it difficult to help the angered teen, especially when he wasn't willing to learn anything and he didn't seem to take instructions very well.

All this worrying has been distracting Dean while he was running around the danger room in increased gravity. He accidentally lost focus and tripped, luckily he regained his balance and continued running.

After spending quite a while in the danger room Dean finally emerged drenched in sweat but his facial expression didn't have one of fatigue, but one of concern.

Logan was waiting for him right by the entrance to ask Dean something. Dean had recently stopped wanting to train with his weapons against Logan, something very strange and unlike him, he wondered if he could get an answer from him.

Logan noticed the concerned expression on the youth's face. "Something got ya thinking kid?" Logan asked.

Dean sighed, "It's about my other friends" he said bluntly.

Logan looked skeptical, "You're gonna have to be more specific kid"

Dean cleared his throat, "My half-blood friends"

Oh those, Logan wasn't sure what to think about the little gang Dean had going on on the sidelines, that would be a topic for another day. "What about 'em?" he asked.

"Well, I've taken the role of their teacher of martial arts, and one of them doesn't seem to be progressing much. I'm not sure whether it's me or him that's doing something wrong." Dean said questioning his teaching skills.

"Well tell me the situation then" Logan suggested.

Dean described the last few sessions he had with Jon to Logan.

"Hmm" Logan looked skeptical, "Well you're not doing bad, no not bad at all, in fact you're doing fine. Jon is the one who seems to have the problem."

"So what do I do then?" Dean asked.

"Well you have to be patient with him, try approaching it differently." Logan said.

"I'll keep that in mind" Dean said as he went to change. It was bad enough he had to deal with his own mental problems but now he has to deal with somebody else's, great.

As Dean was changing in his room he stopped after putting on some comfy workout pants to think about what he was going to do with Jon.

'His anger is going to get him killed one day' he thought, 'I have to reach him, or he might jeopardize himself and the rest of us'

As Dean was thinking about his little problem Jean walked in his room without knocking only to find him standing by the window shirtless.

"Looks like I came at the right time" Jean joked.

Dean snapped out of his train of thought, "Huh?" he looked at himself and noticed he wasn't wearing a shirt yet, "Oh shirt, right" he went in his drawer and pulled out a tight grey shirt that highlighted his muscular figure.

"You're not bothered one bit that I caught you getting dressed?" Jean asked.

"Well I normally expect you to knock before you come in but besides that I have nothing to hide" He said as he put his combat boots on while he sat on his bed.

That last part made Jean giggle, "So where are you taking me today?" she asked taking a seat next to him.

Dean looked confused, "Did I miss something?"

Jean folded her arms over her chest and looked upset, "You forgot didn't you?"

Dean thought back and tried to remember what exactly Jean is talking about. Dean suddenly realizes what it is, "I was supposed to take you out on a date today, wow I totally forgot."

"But you don't usually forget things" Jean said.

"Yeah I know" Dean admitted, "Must be all that's going on lately that distracted me"

"What's been going on?" Jean asked curiously.

Dean decides to leave his visions out of it, "Its half-blood stuff, I'm not gonna get into it right now cause I need to go" Dean grabs the rest of his things before laying a brief kiss on Jean's lips, "See ya later"

Jean sighed, how could she stay mad at that boy?

* * *

Dean was practicing some wrestling moves with Jon to try and improve his ground game. Jon was trying to use whatever wrestling he learned so far from Dean and use it against him. I didn't seem to go so well as Dean would counter and reverse any grapple Jon got him in, which pissed off Jon a lot.

Dean could see the anger on Jon's face as clear as day.

"Stop" Dean told him.

"What is it now?" Jon complained.

"We need to have a talk before we go any further." Dean said, "I need you to sit down and listen to me very carefully" he sat down.

Jon luckily managed to be rid of his anger for now and sat down a few feet across from him.

"I told you before, an angry mind is a narrow mind. Whenever you're angry you're only thinking about what you can do to somebody. You're not thinking about what can happen to you. Now that's how you lose a fight." Dean spoke very seriously.

"Isn't anger good for fighting?" Jon asked trying to defend himself.

Dean shook his head in denial, "No. It's about emotional content. Not anger." He learned that long ago.

"Doesn't anger make you work harder?" Again Jon tried to defend his case.

"No, it just makes you feel like you're working harder. You're actually burning out your mind. And where your mind goes, your body follows. It's better to make your opponent angry, so you can control the fight." Dean spoke words of wisdom.

"But it's not that easy" Jon pleaded.

"Nothing in life is easy, you're slowly beginning to see that. Everyone has their own flaws to deal with. For example Billy needs to stop being so arrogant, for that is his greatest weakness. The real test for you is to calm your mind." Dean said pointing to his head. "I can help you get rid of your weakness, but only if you let me"

"I…..I don't know" Jon still didn't seem willing to open up to him.

"You'll learn to trust us as time goes on, for now I'll continue teaching you, along with ways to control your anger." Dean included, "You're going to need them"

"Then show me" Jon said.

Dean simply said one word, "Meditate"

"Meditate?" Jon asked.

"Meditate" Dean said again, "Meditation can help you calm your mind, give you better control and with enough practice you will find inner peace. Try and meditate for the rest of the day" he told him.

"I don't know how to meditate" Jon said.

Dean showed him the classic position and how to perform the simple but difficult task.

"I'll see you tomorrow then" Dean went to walk out.

"Wait where are you going?" Jon asked him.

"I got a date with a sexy redhead" Dean said grinning slightly.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

_Grim Reminder_

**At the institute **

Logan was having disturbing nightmares. He was floating in a tank of green liquid, unconscious, and he suddenly opened his eyes and unsheathed his claws. He stabs the glass of the tank, breaking it, and he bursts out of it.

The dream skips forward to him running through a forest, trying to escape something, he suddenly sniffs something and turns around to fight a man-beast who roars like a tiger.

Logan wakes up from his dream, delirious and confused to see himself higher up than his own bed he falls from high up in the room.

* * *

A few hours later an alarm is going off in Kitty's room. The annoying sound of her alarm wakes her up and she groans, she goes to shut it off but accidentally phases her hand through it.

'Not again' Kitty thought as she made herself get up.

She walks through the hallway on her way to the bathroom but when she approaches it she misses the sign that says 'Occupied' and simply phases through the door.

"Wha" she is surprised to find someone else in the bathroom.

"Hey do ya mind?!" Rogue was pissed off.

Kitty phases back out of the bathroom.

The door opens revealing a messy haired Rogue, "The sign says occupied" she pokes Kitty with her hairbrush, "The door was locked"

"Uh well who can read at this hour?" Kitty said with a smile trying to cheer her roommate up.

Rogue slams the door in her face.

"Sorry" Kitty says with an attitude.

* * *

'Dear Mom and Dad' Kitty typed in her computer, she was sending an email to her parents. 'Today started out just like all the other school days, with everyone feeling a little crowded, me included.'

Rogue walks in the room, 'Especially with a roommate like Rogue. Though it's not real easy to get close to her, or healthy either' Rogue took a hair drier from her bottom drawer and started drying her hair.

Kitty closes her laptop and moves to a different location. She phases through her door only to stop as the line of people run for the bathrooms. They all walk by her not noticing her and here or there was a shove.

She finds a quiet spot in the dining room, 'Finding a place to be here alone around here is really a matter of timing, sometimes you have to settle.' She looks over to Logan reading his newspaper, 'Like when Mr. Logan is around, but that's ok because he doesn't want to talk to anybody, well except maybe Dean.'

Logan notices her looking at him, "What's the matter half-pint, am I reading too loudly for ya?" he jokes.

"Uh no, just enjoying how quiet it is" she said. And right as she says that everyone bursts in the room looking for food and making all kinds of racket. Someone turns on the TV and a news report comes on, something that attracts Logan's attention so he increases the volume.

"—**catastrophe in the Canadian wilderness**"

'It's like sometimes Mr. Logan can be so incredibly rude you know?'

"**As a result of the they've closed all entry into Elkford until further notice**"

"Elkford?" the name reminds Logan of something. Logan drops the TV remote and storms off.

"Hey Logan you ok?" Scott asked curious as to what ticked him off.

'I mean Professor Xavier is always saying that we're kind of like a family here at the institute, and we all have to get along. But Mr. Logan doesn't act like it, he's always going off doing this lone wolf thing. I mean it's not like his life is so much tougher than ours'

Logan runs in his room grabbing his head from the pain that suddenly emerged and immediately shut his door. He tries to balance himself on his desk chair but the pain in his head is too great.

He screams out in pain and throws the chair at the wall shattering it. He unsheathes his claws and starts slashing at the whole room.

As Kitty was passing by his room she saw three claws slash his door.

"Mr. Logan?" she asks out loud.

Logan bursts out of his room looking pissed as hell.

"Um sorry I…..are-are you ok?" she asked a little afraid.

Logan grabs his head trying to get rid of the pain, "Yeah fine, fine just redecorating" he closes his door and walks away trying to shake off that weird feeling.

* * *

Evan was laying on the couch shooting mini spikes out of his fingers at the ceiling. Kitty walks in and looks at the ceiling and finds a poster of "The Festering Boys", probably some band.

"Evan, what are you doing?" she asked a little annoyed.

"I didn't have space for this in my room" he shoots two more spike at it to keep it pinned to the ceiling.

"We all share this area you know, what if some of us don't like the Festering Boys?" she asked.

"You could um, deal with it, see ya" He goes back upstairs.

Kitty sits on the couch and opens up her laptop and starts typing again. 'Evan is the youngest and he is so immature you know? It's like he has no idea how his actions affect the rest of us'

Stuff starts to fall from the ceiling and the poster falls on her, 'Then again like maybe he does'

She moves outside and sits on the branch of a tree. 'Some of the kids around here are pretty nice, like Scott' she watches him tinker with his car. 'Sometimes he tries to be so totally responsible for Professor Xavier and the other students, then other times he acts just like a regular high school kid'

The roar of Scott's speakers blasting full volume music startles Kitty, 'Today he's definitely a kid'

Kitty moves to where she can see the vast woods next to the mansion, and it just so happened Dean was practicing with his swords.

'And then there's Dean. Dean is the newest member of the team. He's so different from the rest of us, but similar at the same time you know?'

Dean was slicing the air with incredible speed. He jumps in the air and does a triple backflip before landing on his feet again. 'He focuses so much on improving his body and his skills way more than the rest of us'

Dean puts down his swords and starts to meditate.

'And yet he can be so down to earth when he wants to, it's like a switch that he turns on and off'

She looks over to the yard and notices Logan and the Professor talking, 'Thank goodness for Professor Xavier, he keeps a lid on things around here. Not an easy job sometimes, especially with Mr. Logan. I bet he really gets after him for trashing his room.'

* * *

Logan is pacing back and forth trying to keep calm but can't seem to pull it off, "Somethin in that news story, I don't know what, set me off." Logan said to Charles.

"Let's talk about it, sit down" Charles said and Logan obliged by sitting down by a nearby bench.

Logan sighs, "Charles, there's something in my head, buried there. Now how about you get inside and see if you can cut it loose."

"Alright" Charles agreed, "But first you need to relax"

Logan laughs a little, "Yeah, easy for you to say"

Charles puts his hand on Logan's head and searches through it mentally. He sees a brief vision of a bald, pale white man, with square glasses. The vision then shows the man on the outside of a water tank pressing buttons and doing other things.

Logan can't take the sharp sting in the back of his head so he flinches back away from Charles's reach. He starts breathing heavy, "Ugh, tell me that was a dream or somethin"

"No, a memory. Long forgotten, or rather suppressed" Charles said, "I believe that was a glimpse of how you came to acquire your unusual implements, do you wish to continue?" He asked.

"Go for it" Logan said.

Charles puts his hand back on Logan's forehead and he immediately feels the pain again.

A vision is shown of Logan in the woods encountering another person in the shadows whose growl resembles an animal. The person leaps at Logan going for the kill and that snaps them both out of the vision.

"Are you alright?" Charles asked.

Logan groaned from the pain in his head, "Whatever happened to me, that's where it started, with that ghoul with the square glasses" he growled, "He's the guy who did this" he shows Charles one of his claws, "I gotta go" Logan goes to leave.

Charles stops him, "You're going to that town in Canada aren't you?" he asked, "The one you saw on TV, and in your nightmares"

"Happened to pick that up while inside my head?" he asked moving along.

"Do you want company?" Charles asked.

"Do I ever?" Logan asked back.

* * *

Kitty had moved to inside the X-jet, 'Well, I guess I better sign off before Kurt pops in and finds me. He's always doing that, totally freaks me' Kitty shivers, 'Besides, I'm about late for school' and as she typed that last part Kurt and Dean port in the jet to find her, scaring her in the process.

"There you are" Kurt said, "Why are you in here?" he asked.

"Out of like, necessity" Kitty complained.

"Whatever, c'mon Scott's giving you guys a ride to school" Dean said.

"All I wanted was just one minute alone in this whole stupid mansion" she closes her laptop with an attitude.

"Ou touchy" Kurt was teasing her, "Sounds like someone's got an astral physics test today"

All of a sudden the jet rumbles and knocks Kitty and Kurt over. They get up and open the door to the cockpit and spot Logan in uniform, "It's Logan" Dean said going to walk over to him.

Kitty stops him, "I wouldn't he's been acting mega weird all morning"

"Ah don't be so dramatic" Dean walks over to Logan, "Hey man what's happening?" he puts his hand on Logan's shoulder.

Logan's face grows thick with rage and he throws a punch that at the last second sprout three claws.

Dean narrowly avoided the claws by moving his head to the side by mere centimeters, had it not been for his reflexes his head would be gone right now. Dean eyes Logan's claws and his mind flashes back to the moment Daken almost gutted him. His body starts to shake in fear and he starts to sweat.

Logan just realized what he did and retracted his claws and grasped his head.

"Whoa Logan what's going on?" Dean asked concerned and sounding slightly scared.

"Still think I'm being dramatic?" Kitty asked.

Dean could see the pain and confusion on Logan's face but he was clueless as to what was going on so he slowly backed away not wanting to fight Logan in his current condition one bit.

"Engage auto-pilot" Logan said as he got up from his seat. Logan grunted, "Why are you following me?"

"We're not following you we just—"Kitty was interrupted by Logan's claws coming out of his knuckles. Dean now started to look pale.

"Now you made him angry" Kurt said getting close to Kitty out of fear.

"I gotta take you back before, Aaahhhh!" he screams out grasping his aching head, "You gotta get away, there's something in my head, I can't control it, can't be trusted." He inched closer to them.

"Kitty shut the doors now!" Dean yelled trying his best to hide his true feelings.

Kitty pressed the button and Dean jumped in just in time to get it.

As the door closed Logan clawed at the door creating three slashes that could be clearly seen from their side.

"I guess that means we're not in immediate danger" Dean said panting, the other two paid no mind to it.

"There's a crazy person flying the plane! You call that safe!" Kurt was panicking, "We gotta get out of here!"

As Dean's mind started to clear and his body returned to normal he thought for second, "Can you transport us to the ground?" he asked Kurt.

"Uh yeah right" Kurt said with as much sarcasm as he could muster at this moment, "Picture this" his hand slowly moved lower, "Bamf Bamf Bamf splat! Too high up and way too fast" he said.

"Then I guess we're stuck on this flight" Kitty said.

"The question is, where are we flying to?" Dean asked out loud.

* * *

After a few hours of flying the jet finally landed and Logan exited the plane. After he was out of sight Kitty phased out of the plane with Dean and two seconds later Kurt teleported outside, all of them in uniform.

"Did you get into the cockpit?" Kitty asked.

"Ya, but something's jamming the transmitter way out here, I couldn't reach the institute" Kurt said.

"Looks like we're on our own then" Dean said, "Now look, we have to be stealthy, that means not letting him know we're following him, got it?" he makes sure his teammates understand.

"Thanks captain obvious" Kitty said.

"Just making sure your little brain gets it Kitty" he taps her head, "I don't want you giving away our position"

* * *

The Professor was looking at the screen of Logan's brain, "Excellent, you see? That chip in his brain is still active after all these years. Oh I did such good work in those days" he chuckled, "And yet through sheer force of will he's managed to subdue it, until now" the screen zooms in on Logan's location.

"Why now?" a voice asked.

"Oh I suppose he just got too comfortable with Xavier, let his guard down." The professor said, "Certain news footage did the rest. Isn't that right bigfoot?"

"Don't call me bigfoot" The voice came out of the shadows revealing Sabertooth.

"Tell you what Sabertooth, why don't you go make sure our old colleague meets our new one?" The Professor grinned.

* * *

Logan was passing through the woods when he stumbled upon a small town that was half burned to the ground. 'Looks like I'm not the only one who's having a bad day' Logan thought.

Buildings were smashed to the ground, fires were still being put out by local firemen, and people were still being evacuated by ambulances.

Luckily right now his splitting headache is gone for the moment.

He passes by a destroyed car that had a teddy bear on the front seat. He sniffs with his nose to try and figure out what happened, and he smells a little girl being ambushed by some creature, a creature that smelled toxic. Then he sniffs gun powder, seems like someone tried to fight back.

He kicks some dust off of a sign that said "Elkford"

'Oh no not that again' the pain in the back of his head returns with a vengeance, he does the only thing he can think of, follow the trail of the creature.

* * *

Dean, Kurt, and Kitty had finally caught up with Logan and were watching from afar, well Dean was. He was the only one who could actually see him because of his great eyesight, and he wasn't going to risk getting any closer.

They followed him to a lake, one that was probably freezing cold because of the weather. Dean spots someone with Logan but he doesn't recognize him or see him as a threat. All of a sudden something happens and Dean's eyes widen to their limit, "Oh my god"

* * *

Logan had passed by a few craters as he followed the trail, the last one being in snow that showed the gigantic feet of the creature. Logan followed the footsteps and as he followed them they seemed to shrink to the point where they were the exact same size as his own.

The trail leads him to a lake where he finds a scrawny man wearing nothing but tattered purple shorts had his face in his hands and sounded like he was crying.

"Hey bub" Logan talked to the scrawny man.

The man's face rose and looked frightened of Logan.

"You haven't seen a big monster running around here have ya?" he asks him.

The man backs away from Logan, "No, stay back, stay away from me" his voice sounded petrified, "Stay back" be backed into a wall.

"Relax cry baby, I ain't gonna—"Logan suddenly sniffs something, "You smell toxic!" he grabs him by the hair and throws him into a nearby rock.

Logan picks him up and pins him to a tree, "Who are you?!"

The man started to sweat, "Please I'm begging you, leave me alone, for your own sake please go you're in terrible danger" he closed his eyes from his fear.

Logan put his fist under the man's chin and released two claws that went perfectly around his small head, "Here's the deal mister, there's a third claw that's gonna come out if you don't start talking"

The man suddenly opens his eyes now deep green and he punches Logan sending him flying into a tree.

The scrawny man's body starts to change. His body grows over ten feet tall and just as wide. His muscles all around his body become massive and his skin turns green. His massive hulking figure alone could spread fear into the most courageous warriors, he suddenly shouts a mighty roar, "WWWWRRAAAAHHHHH!" his voice would make those warriors piss their pants.

All the birds in the trees fly away from the noise of his roar and Logan is frozen still, dumbstruck at what just happened.

"Ah hell, I don't suppose you have any interest in talking this out?" Logan said.

The Hulk gave Logan a mighty uppercut that sent him skyrocketing through the air and landed miles and miles away.

* * *

"What happened?" Kitty asked.

Then they heard the roar of the beast.

"That's what happened." Dean said running after where Logan landed.

* * *

Logan woke up on the side of a cliff feeling like he'd been hit with a meteor from space. He notices that his right arm is dislocated so he puts it back into place and yells from the pain, "What the hell happened?" his memory was fuzzy.

Then he heard someone jumping down on him so he backed away.

He spots the Hulk in all his mighty rage, "Oh yeah" if it weren't for his adamantium skeleton that might have killed him.

Logan pumped himself up, "Let's do this!" his claws unsheathed, "Come on!"

The Hulk shouted and pounded the ground shattering the edge they were standing on resulting in them falling into the river below.

As they were underwater the Hulk sent a slow punch to Logan's jaw, and Logan replied with his own. The Hulk gets angrier and punches him left and right before giving him a heavy one sending Logan shooting out of the water.

The Hulk slowly walks out of the water looking for his enemy.

Logan jumps from a tree above and sticks his claws deep inside the Hulk's flesh. Logan hacks at him left and right trying to do permanent damage but the Hulk backs into a mountain and crushes Logan between himself and it.

Logan is forced to let go from the pain he was experiencing then he leaped out of the way of an incoming boulder. Logan runs at the Hulk and dodges another boulder, but the third hits Logan square in the face making his head go back from the force of it. His head goes back to its original position and he leaps over another boulder before being crushed by another in the Hulk's hands.

The Hulk then crushes the remains of the boulder over Logan's body, "HULK SMASH LITTLE MAN!"

He starts beating the crap out of Logan's body, "LITTLE MAN LEAVE HULK ALONE!"

He ends his onslaught with one last punch that echoes for miles from its force, "HULK IS STRONGEST THERE IS!WRRAAAAAHHHHH!" he yells out a loud roar.

* * *

The three teenagers were standing from a distance where they could all see the fight and they stood completely still.

Dean had only heard stories about the rampaging Hulk, but he always dismissed them as silly stories. And now the Hulk just beat the living shit out of someone who is better than him, which really sucks for his reputation.

"Holly shi—"Kurt went to say something but Dean put his hand over his mouth and brought him and Kitty close to him.

The Hulk looked around like he heard something.

"Don't make a sound or we're all dead" Dean whispered to them.

The Hulk dismissed the sound and walked away from Logan's lifeless body. He stopped a few feet forward and started panting, a second later he turns around to find Logan back up but obviously not at 100% just yet.

"Ok bub, let's try that again" he charges at him and slashes his chest before impaling him with his claws and stabbing him repeatedly. He gets off his chest learning his lesson from last time he tried that and used his superior speed to keep away from him and attack quickly.

Logan backed away from a downward smash and then jumped over the Hulk and slashed his back mid-air. Logan ducked underneath an elbow as he came back in and slashed the Hulk's chest.

Both of them take a second to stop and they start panting. And as they were about to continue a couple of dozen of tranquilizers go into the Hulk's giant back and he topples over, unconscious.

Logan sees three figures in the shadows but before he can do anything about it he is shot with tranquilizers and he falls face first to the ground.

Someone kneels right in front of him, "Thanks runt" Logan recognizes him as Sabertooth. "We've been trying to take him down for weeks" two others come into view, a woman with very long nail claws, and a man in a weird red jumpsuit.

"Logan buddy, it's me Deadpool" he waves at him, "I shot you!" the man in the red jumpsuit said right as Logan's vision went out.

Sabertooth walks up to Logan's body and kicks him in the face, "Welcome home"

* * *

In the bushes, Kitty, Dean, and Kurt had no idea how to handle this situation. They waited for Sabertooth and those other two to leave so they can at least start talking again.

"Oh my god what do we do?" Kitty started panicking.

"What do you think they're going to do to him?" Kurt joined her.

"Shut up and listen!" Dean said trying to snap them out of it, "Look this is a very bad situation so we're going to have to handle this carefully. Kurt, Kitty, I need you to go back to the X-jet and get help. I don't care if you have to take off so you can get out of range from that jammed signal, just do it"

"But what are you going to do?" Kurt asked.

"I…..I have to stay here and rescue Logan" Dean said knowing full well he's going to have to fight people with claws which makes a knot in his stomach.

"No way that's crazy!" Kitty grabbed his vest, "They'll kill you!"

Dean grabbed her shoulders, "Listen Kitty, somebody has to stay here so you know where to find Logan. I have a communicator with me, you can track it back to my location. Now go" Dean took off in the direction Sabertooth and the rest of them went.

"Come on, we need to go" Kurt grabbed Kitty and ported out of there.

* * *

Logan was dreaming hard. He saw himself walking outside a motel drinking a bottle of vodka, obviously wasted. He walked forward but dropped the bottle when he did spilling it on the snowy ground. He picked the bottle back up and checked inside to see if there was any left but then he heard someone behind him.

Logan looked back and saw a bald man with square glasses in a winter coat, "What are you lookin at?" Logan said.

Then out of nowhere two soldiers came running from behind the bald man and tackled Logan before placing his unconscious body inside a van, "Prepare the lab" the man with the square glasses spoke into his communicator, "We're on our way"

The dream changes to a lab where Logan is inside a water tank with cables plugged into him all over his body.

"His vital signs are increasing" One of the doctors said, "He's waking up"

Logan opened his eyes.

"Now Ms. Hives, begin the adamantium bonding process" the man with the square glasses said.

"Commencing infusion" someone else said.

Logan's starts to shake around in the tank from the pain of the process.

"Vitals are erratic but holding" someone said.

"Excellent" the man with the square glasses said, "Increase to maximum"

The dream changes to Logan sleeping in a holding cell, chained to the floor. He wakes up and tries to free himself but the chain is strong. Then out of nowhere he feels a stabbing pain in his hands and three metal claws come out of each one and he screams out in pain.

The dream changes again to Logan outside in the cold snowstorm with some kind of head gear around his head. He could see the infrared heat from a bear passing by him.

Inside a lab a bunch of doctors were observing Logan. "Weapon X's mental conditioning and reprograming are at stage 5. Begin combat assessment." The man with the square glasses said.

Logan unsheathed his claws and the bear near him growled before standing up straight ready to fight. Right as Logan goes for the kill the dream changes again.

"I don't care how long you've had him, Professor. This is a mistake" Sabertooth said, "I know him, he can't be controlled. You have his DNA so just let me kill him."

The Professor was examining Logan, "I'll take that under advisement, Sabertooth. Prepare your team for the mission." He walked away.

"Your funeral" Sabertooth walked away and growled at Logan. As he was walking he passed by dozens of water tanks with toddlers in them that we're numbered, X-20, X-21, X-22, and so on.

"What do you say after the mission we kill all those floating babies?" Deadpool said grabbing a gun.

"Do you ever shut up Wilson?" Sabertooth said.

"What? Babies creep me out." He aims his gun, "RockabyBANG! Heh" he laughs.

The dream changes again to the lab with Logan in the tank.

"He's fighting the programming" One of the doctors said.

Logan started banging on the glass trying to get out.

"We are losing control! Increase the dosage." The Professor said behind the glass in another room, "Initiate lockdown procedures and someone activate Sabertooth!"

Logan unsheathes his claws and stabs the glass breaking it and all the liquid leaking out along with him. He slashes the two doctors that were in the room with him.

"Guards! Guards!" the Professor yelled out as Logan jumped through the glass.

Two armed guards come in and Logan roars before running at them. As he passes by the Professor he chops off one of his arms and takes down the two guard before making a run for it.

Logan wakes up from his dream with a couple of punches to the face from Sabertooth, "Wakey wakey time"

Deadpool was juggling bullets in the background, "Logan! We missed you! Weapon X hasn't been the same without you! Nobody calls me Bub anymore!" he puts the bullets back in his gun, "And Sabertooth's a bed wetter!"

The Professor walks in with a robotic arm instead of the one he lost.

"One day I will tear out your flapping tongue, Wilson" Sabertooth said getting pissed.

"He's very ashamed" Deadpool whispers to Logan.

"Despite Deadpool's idiocy" the Professor said, "Weapon X is indeed glad to have you back, Logan. We put considerable time and money into you."

"And pointy things!" Deadpool said.

The Professor ignored him, "You've aged remarkably well Logan. Your recuperative powers have served you well. Now it's time they serve me again. Especially since your enhancements represent quite the financial investment.

"Who had it done to me?!" Logan growled.

"What? Your adamantium skeleton? I'm surprised you haven't figured it out by now" The Professor said, "You were our best operative, Wolverine. So disappointing. But you did lead us to Dr. Banner, of course, you know him better as the Hulk."

"I shot him in the ass" Deadpool said, "With one of these" he showed one of the tranquilizer bullets.

Everyone just gives him a weird face.

"What? I did" He said.

The Professor ignored again, "Weapon X has been pursuing the Hulk for weeks. Unfortunately there was some collateral damage." The Professor is speaking of Elkford, "If only I had activated the chip in your brain sooner, who knows how much destruction could have been avoided."

"What do you want with the Hulk?" Logan asked.

"We just want to help him find his happy place" Deadpool said, "Did you see how angry he was? I mean I'm sorry but c'mon! I think his pants are too—"he gets cut off as Sabertooth grabs him by the neck and squeezes to shut him up.

"We want the same thing we wanted with you, Logan. A weapon" the Professor said, "I'll erase Banner's memories and reprogram him, just like I did with you. And then Weapon X will have the most powerful creature on the planet at our disposal."

"You shoulda killed me when you had the chance. Because I'm gonna get out of here. I'm gonna kill all of them" he was referring to his bodyguards, "and then I'm gonna cut out your heart"

The Professor smiles, "Wolverine, after I'm done with you, you won't even remember this conversation. I've erased your life before, and I'm going to do it again. All you'll know is that you belong to Weapon X, now and forever."

Sabertooth lets go of Deadpool and walks out with the Professor.

"That is so not cool" Deadpool said coughing, "I hate that guy" he gets back up, "Ah, Wolverine, you look so sad. Hey if it makes you feel any better, Lady Deathstrike tried to kill you while you were asleep. "

"Better than having to listen to you" Logan said.

"Man, does she hate you" He takes out his gun and starts playing with it, "I mean we all hate ya, but Deathstrike really, really, really hates you. Hey, still have that unbreakable skull?" he aimed at him point blank.

He shot and the bullet bounced off Logan's skull and hit Deadpool's finger, "Ow, dammit"

Logan was knocked out cold.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

_Release the beast_

**At the Weapon X facility**

Dean made his way into the facility that was inside a gigantic crater. He followed Sabertooth's scent from afar so they didn't pick up his own and they led him to the Weapon X facility.

This mission was going to be very tricky, but not impossible. The inside of the facility was filled with shadows and dark hallways where he could pass by undetected.

Now the only problem was finding Logan and the Hulk, on second thought maybe it's not a good idea to look for the Hulk…or Logan…..Dean slapped himself, 'Snap out of it!'

A soldier passes by, all by himself.

'Hmmm, but you know what _is_ a good idea? Getting some equipment' Dean thought. He sneaks behind the soldier and punches him in the gut so hard that he loses consciousness without even making a sound. He drags the body outside where he takes anything he could use before hanging him from the top of the tree so he doesn't go anywhere when he wakes up.

After he goes back in, Dean adjusts the visor he got off the soldier. 'Cool, night vision, and infrared.' He thought.

* * *

Logan wakes up in a water tank with nothing but trousers that were given to him and notices the girl he saw earlier staring at him, hard.

"You will die today, Logan-san" Lady Deathstrike ran her sharp claw finger across the glass.

Logan tried to punch the glass to try and get out. They had placed magnet braces on his wrists to keep him from using his claws.

"It does not matter what the Professor says. These are your last breaths" she said grinning.

Logan banged on the glass harder.

The Professor walked in with Sabertooth, "What are you doing here Deathstrike?" the Professor asked, "I'm about to start Wolverine's reprogramming"

"He has to die" she said with hate.

"How many times do I have to have this conversation with you?! He's more valuable alive and—"The Professor stops his sentence as his back is slashed by Sabertooth.

He falls to the floor, unconscious from the sudden burst of pain.

Sabertooth walks over him, "Sorry Prof, gotta go with the lady on this one"

Deathstrike runs her claw finger through the glass cracking it before slashing it resulting in Logan falling out along with all the liquid that was inside with him.

Logan immediately tries to get the braces off his wrists but Lady Deathstrike plants all five of her fingers into Logan's back and digs deep into his flesh.

Logan yells out from the pain of her claws messing around with his insides. Then she puts her other hand in too and the sound of Logan in pain brings joy to her face. She then removes her claw fingers from his back and Sabertooth socks him one right in the jaw.

Sabertooth then goes behind him and grabs both of his arms leaving him defenseless, "Gotta love our healing factors." Sabertooth said grinning, "I'm gonna enjoy killing you for days. And then, I think we'll drop the Hulk on an orphanage or something. Just for fun"

"Gaijin dog" Lady Deathstrike said approaching, "For the dishonor you caused my family, you will suffer, and then you will die"

Logan grunts, "Sweetheart, you and your family can take your honor and shove it up your boney little—"Logan gets cut off as Sabertooth squeezes his back realizing what he's trying to do.

Lady Deathstrike's face turns red with rage and pulls back her hands for a lunge.

"Deathstrike don't!" Sabertooth yelled out but he was too late.

Lady Deathstrike impaled Logan and went straight through his chest and Sabertooth's at the same time resulting in him letting go of Logan.

Logan took advantage of this and head-butted Lady Deathstrike as hard as he could sending her a few feet back. Logan smashes the braces against Sabertooth's face sending him crashing to the floor and they shatter, he then unsheathes his claws just in time to be attacked by Deathstrike.

She slashes his chest and then his face before jumping away just in time to avoid a stab from Logan.

She then slashes his face again before kneeing him in the forehead.

Logan readies himself for the next attack.

Lady Deathstrike tries to leap over him and attack but Logan ducks underneath her. He then cuts her arm off, showing its cybernetic parts, and kicks her in the face before making a run for the exit to the room.

He finds his uniform in one of the other rooms and searches for Dr. Banner. As he's walking down the dark hallway a bunch of red dots appear on his chest. He looks forward and see's about a dozen armed soldiers ready to fire at him.

"Target located in zone 23, take him down" One of them ordered.

Logan runs at them getting shot here and there but he picks them apart one by one.

"Backup! We need backup!" the last one yelled as he fired at Logan.

* * *

Deadpool taps his foot on the Professors unconscious body to see if he's awake but nothing, "Well he's alive, but I think he's gonna need some serious TLC." Deadpool said.

"The last thing the Professor said before the runt gutted him was for us to kill Wolverine" Sabertooth said.

Lady Deathstrike re attaches her chopped off arm and the circuitry repairs itself.

"Really huh? You expect me to buy that? Yeah, you know, I would think that the last thing he said was, 'Ahh, Sabertooth!'" Deadpool said.

"We kill Wolverine now!" Lady Deathstrike said, "That is all that matters"

"Whatever you say lady" Deadpool pulls out a gun and one of his blades, "Who am I to say no to a little murder? Strike a pose!"

* * *

"Target located in zone 23, take him down" Dean heard over the radio he picked up from the soldier. "Backup! We need backup!" he hears again two seconds later.

Dean hears footsteps down the hall and can tell that that must be the back-up. Dean steps right in front of them and stares them down.

All the soldiers raise their weapons and aim them at Dean, "Put your hands up and get down on the ground!" one of them yelled.

Dean proceeded by grabbing two things, a small pocket knife and a canister.

"Get down on the ground now!" one of them yelled again.

Dean threw the canister at the soldiers.

"Open fire!" they all started shooting at him.

Right as they did the canister exploded with thick smoke clouding everyone's vision and Dean threw his pocket knife at the lights destroying them and leaving them in pitch black. Dean put on the visor that he picked up and switched it to infrared.

"Quick switch to infrared!" one of the soldiers shouted. But before they could, Dean took them out one by one until only one was left.

The soldier started looking around trying to find his opponent but couldn't spot him. All of a sudden he turns around and spots Dean right in front of him. He goes to pull the trigger on his machine gun but before he could Dean placed his finger right behind the trigger preventing the soldier from shooting.

Dean tosses the machine gun aside and kicks the soldier square in the chest sending him flying into the metal wall unconscious.

Dean found his way into a room where Dr. Banner was inside a water tank, unconscious. He walks up to the water tank and smashes the glass with his fist, breaking it.

Dr. Banner falls out of the tank and starts coughing up the water in his lungs.

'This is the Hulk?' Dean thought, 'I guess it makes sense he would be a scrawny weakling when he's normal', "Get it together, we're gonna have company soon" Dean said.

"Please, please, I'm begging you. You have to help me, you have to get me out of here. If these people turn the hulk into a weapon, millions of people will die" Dr. Banner said.

"I know and that's why we have to hurry" Dean said before dragging him out, "Come on" they head towards where Logan was last spotted.

He turns the corner only to catch an incoming clawed fist, "You know, you need to learn to relax" Dean said to Logan while his body started to shake slightly.

"What are you doing here kid?" Logan asked getting mad.

"I came to save your ass, now lets move" Dean said.

They walk the halls trying to find an exit.

"You don't know what it's like, I've been hunted for as long as I can remember, and I can't control it. The monster it—"Dr. Banner gets cut off.

"Bub, do I look like I give a—"Logan stops as he smells something. He leaps out of the way with Dr. Banner in his arms and dodges dozens of bullets. Dean leaped the opposite way and also avoided them.

Then the wall right next to them is blown away and out comes Lady Deathstrike who inserts her finger claws inside of Logan and raises him up in the air.

Logan tries to move around so he can free himself.

"Please struggle, it will make your death taste so much sweeter" she said throwing him into the wall.

"No!" Dr. Banner yelled out.

"Yes!" Deadpool said aiming a gun at Dr. Banner's head, "As in, 'yes, you're going to die. BANG! Just kidding."

Dean goes to help Logan but his feet are grabbed from under him and he is swung into the concrete wall, "Well look who it is" he heard a familiar voice.

"Sabertooth" Dean got right back up.

"Click click!" Deadpool said about to pull the trigger.

Sabertooth leaps at Dean as expected and he grabs Sabertooth midair and swings him around before releasing him right into Lady Deathstrike freeing Logan.

Logan acts quickly and slices the gun Deadpool was holding, "No! That was my favorite gun!" he yelled out before getting hit in the face with a right hook.

All three of them start running away.

"What the hell's the matter with you?! Do your thing!" Logan yelled at Dr. Banner, "We need your big green friend right freaking now!"

"What?! No!" he refused.

Logan stopped and pinned him to the wall, "What do you mean no?!"

"Even if that was a good idea, I can't!" he said, "The transformation happens when I feel angry, or stressed, they must have drugged me, something's suppressing my adrenaline. It comes from the cortex and—"he gets cut off as he is stabbed in the side.

"Maybe that'll help speed things up" Logan said retracting his claws, "If you wanna cry now, I'd say go for it."

Dean was beyond shocked at what he just saw, "You think that was a good idea?" he asked him feeling uneasy with his claws.

"We'll find out soon enough" Logan said.

"Gaijin!" they heard down the hall.

"And here we go again" Dean said readying himself.

All three of them were standing a few feet away from them, "End of the line, runt. Got any last words?" Sabertooth asked.

"Yeah, 2" he unsheathes his claws with a snikt sound. Dean forced himself to look away and try to focus on the task at hand.

They both charge in.

Deadpool draws his blades, "Let's dance"

Dean felt sort of drawn away from the opponents with claws. Ever since his encounter with Daken he's been haunted with nightmares of his failure, even his sessions with Logan tend to disturb him sometimes. "I got big mouth!" Dean said going to attack Deadpool, the only enemy without claws.

"Fine by me, Raahh!" Logan attacks Sabertooth. Sabertooth goes for a kick but is deflected by Logan's leg, he then blocks a right hook from Sabertooth.

"I've been waiting for this a long time" Sabertooth said.

Sabertooth dodges a swipe from Logan but gets hit in the gut with a foot, "Yeah. Well, you can keep waiting." He elbows him in the face sending him to the floor.

Lady Deathstrike jumps right over Sabertooth and engages Logan. She dodges a swipe from Logan and then she leaps away from a second one.

Deadpool slashes at Dean but he dodges, he tried again again and again but misses due to Dean's agility and dexterity.

"C'mon stand still! I wanna kill you!" Deadpool started complaining.

"Yeah sure, I'll just do that" Dean said sarcastically.

"Really? You'd do that for me?" Deadpool asked stopping his onslaught.

"Nope" Dean Hits him with a heavy right hook that spins his head around 180 degrees, "Shit, I used too much power."

"You know" Deadpool spoke, he turned his head around again, "That really hurt"

'Ok, he's got a healing factor, not sure if that's a good thing' Dean thought.

Deadpool starts swiping and slashing with his blades again but this time at a much faster rate. Dean incapable of dodging everything resorted to blocking with his gauntlets but nonetheless it was still hard to keep up with the retard.

As Deadpool goes for a lung Dean grabs his arm and swings him overhead. He looks down to where Deadpool dropped one of his blades and examined it. He used the knife on his shoulder to test it and it cut him, "Hmm, adamantium huh?"

"Banzai!" He hears above him all of a sudden. He looks up to see Deadpool diving at him so Dean acts fast and slices one of Deadpool's arms off.

"Ah dude! That is just not cool!" Deadpool complained. His arm flies away and bounces on the floor, "Wow look at that. Could you gimme a hand?" he asked, "Haha, Kidding. Alright I'll go get it" he goes to pick up his lost limb and Dean just sits there at how retarded this guy seems to him.

Logan gets hit with a massive uppercut from Sabertooth that sends him flying.

Deadpool puts his arm back in place and waits for it to heal, "There we go, wait….what the hell?"

Logan avoids a claw swipe from Sabertooth.

"Oh god no it's upside down" Deadpool said.

Dean has had enough of Deadpool's stupidity, if he wants to ignore fatal injuries then that's fine with him. He goes up to him and chops off one of his arms again and grabs the loose limb.

"Oh c'mon, not again" Deadpool said.

Dean starts slapping him around with his own arm, "Stop hitting yourself"

Logan blocks a slash from Lady Deathstrike and pushes her away from him.

Deadpool pulls out a gun and starts firing at Dean to make him stop and he does in order to avoid the bullets. "There she is, sweet" he puts his arm back on correctly.

Dean grabs a grenade he picked up from the soldier earlier and throws it at Deadpool, it explodes and poison gas spreads all around him.

"That should take care of him for a little" Dean said as he went to go help Logan. Dean moves his head sideways avoiding a bullet and jumps back ready to defend himself.

Deadpool comes walking out of the poison gas. He inhales deeply, "Somebody's wearing some nice perfume in here"

"What are you?" Dean said out loud not believing his eyes, he was like a nuisance that wouldn't go away.

Deadpool scratched his head, "I don't really know, can you tell me?" he takes off his mask revealing his grotesque face which showed all of his insides.

"Oh c'mon that's just wrong" Dean said feeling disgusted.

Logan and Sabertooth push on each other's claws and Logan sneaked a knee to the groin. Then he blocks a slash from Deathstrike, then he goes to block a strike from Sabertooth only to be hit in the back from Lady Deathstrike.

Lady Deathstrike plants her claw fingers inside of Logan, digging deep into his flesh and at the same time Sabertooth stabbed and slashed from the front. His shouts of pain echoed through the facility.

Deadpool now had two guns in his hands and was freely firing at Dean, "C'mon kid, dance for me"

Dean would help Logan but if he stops moving even for a second he might get shot.

"Gonna kill you!" Logan yells out.

All of a sudden a mighty roar made them all freeze in place. They looked to where it came from and spotted the giant green monster approaching.

"HULK SMASH CLAW PEOPLE!" he screamed out as he ran towards them.

Lady Deathstrike and Deadpool immediately move out of the way and so do Logan and Dean.

"Oh no!" Sabertooth yelled out in fear before getting blasted out of the facility with one uppercut.

"RAAAHHHH!" The Hulk yelled out.

Deadpool starts shooting the Hulk like crazy chanting, "DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE!" and Dean made sure to keep his distance from him.

Before Logan could act Lady Deathstrike pierced his back with one of her claws, "This next one will be through your brain stem Logan-san" she extended another finger claw and was about to strike right as Dean gave her a heavy haymaker that sent her flying over the edge.

"LITTLE MAN" The Hulk spoke.

Logan and Dean turned around to face him.

The Hulk throws a big piece of metal scrap at them and they both dodge it.

"Hey, I'm on your side you flaming idiot!" Logan yelled.

"Not the best choice of words" Dean said backing away and so did Logan as the Hulk approached.

Then the Hulk starts running at them which makes them burst into their top speed away from him.

"Hey, wait for me!" Deadpool said catching up. He jumped on the Hulk's shoulders, "Who wants snacks?!" he took out a grenade, "You do!" he put It into the Hulk's mouth and jumped off of him and continued running with Logan and Dean.

"Guys, I think we lost him" Deadpool said as the Hulk was right behind them.

The explosion of the grenade sent all three of them toppling over. They looked back but there was nothing but orange smoke.

"And they lived happily ever after." Deadpool said, "Except the Hulk"

"Bub, you just made him angrier" Logan said getting ready to run.

Noises could be heard from inside the smoke, spitting noises, then another very loud and intimidating roar.

"TALKING MAN HURT HULK. HULK RIP OFF TALKING MAN'S HEAD!" He yelled out.

"My head? Oh crap" Deadpool said.

"He's all yours Einstein" Logan grabs him.

"No, Logan, we're friends. No. No!" Deadpool screamed as he was thrown at the Hulk.

The Hulk punched Deadpool in the face so hard his head literally exploded from the impact and then he continued chasing Logan and Dean.

As he was chasing them, Lady Deathstrike jumps in and slashes the Hulk's face. The Hulk took his hand off his face showing three marks, "UGLY GIRL SCRATCH HULK!" he goes to crush her with his fist but she moves out of the way.

"Hold on" Logan said to Dean, "I wanna see her get her butt kicked"

She slashes his chest and the Hulk goes for a downward punch but Deathstrike jumps over it and slashes his back. Deathstrike then slashes the Hulk's face before jumping over another downward smash. But as she was still in the air, the Hulk clapped his hands creating a shockwave that sent Lady Deathstrike toppling to the floor.

"Kid I need you to get out of here" Logan told him.

Dean thinks about it and realizes that he's way out of his league, "Don't have to tell me twice" Dean split. He knew Logan could take care of himself and that he would just get in his way.

The Hulk goes up to her and picks her up by both her arms. Lady Deathstrike screams in his face trying to intimidate him but instead the Hulk roars back loudly and rips both her cybernetic arms off.

The Hulk then starts jumping around the facility and starts trashing the place. Literally taking it apart. Red lights turn on everywhere and an alarm starts ringing.

Logan searches for the Hulk and finds him in the main reactor room ripping the gigantic pillar from the ground.

"Go for it big guy, tear this whole god forsaken place down to the ground." Logan said.

The Hulk manages to rip the gigantic pillar off the ground.

"Do it! Uh oh" Logan realizes what he wanted to do with the pillar.

The Hulk holds the pillar with two hands and swings it at Logan hitting him like a baseball sending him flying out of the facility right before it exploded.

* * *

Dean managed to get out of the facility and reached high ground where he found Sabertooth lying on the ground, still unconscious from the blow the Hulk gave him.

Then two seconds later the facility explodes and Logan lands right next to Sabertooth.

"Ow." Logan said getting up.

Dean helped him up, "Looks like we did it"

"Yeah seems so. Project Weapon X has been terminated, forever" Logan said with satisfaction.

"Hopefully" Dean said, who knows what the future might await them.

They hear a distant roar makes its way closer to them.

"Aw, great" Logan said.

The Hulk leaps out of the destroyed facility and lands right next to them.

Upon seeing them close to him the Hulk hits Dean square in the chest sending him flying right into a tree.

Logan runs after him, "Kid!" he reaches him, "Kid are you alright?"

Dean spit out blood, he couldn't move an inch. "I-I think he….broke every bone in my body…..just with that one punch" he tries to laugh but spits out more blood instead.

"You'll be fine kid, I'll take care of it from here" Logan said approaching the Hulk.

Dean's vision was blurred and was growing Darker.

"All right, Bub. Where were we?" Logan asked out loud unsheathing his claws.

They both yell out a roar as they charge at each other and they leap to meet head on in mid-air. And that is the last thing Dean saw before his eyes went dark.

**Hours later back at the Institute**

Logan suddenly wakes up in bed.

"Relax my friend" he hears next to him. He looks over and see's Charles.

"You're back at the institute, you're safe" he reassured him.

"What about the kid? Is he…." Logan asked.

"Fine, Dean has survived and is resting. His body is badly bruised but his powers will help him heal soon enough." Charles said.

Logan grabs his head from a slight sting, "What happened?"

"We found you unconscious in the snow, what happened to the Hulk?"

Logan remembers his last fight with the green monster, "He's gone, we settled our score. But why is there a sting in my head?"

"I've been here checking on you every hour after the surgery" Charles mentioned, "We removed the chip, is there pain?" he asked.

"Yeah but not from the surgery, or wounds. Someday though, I'm going to find out who had this done to me" Logan said, "That's a promise"

* * *

'So like I said this morning, it's just been another normal day here at the Xavier Institute. Funny, I've been complaining about not having any time alone right? But I think I like miss bumping into everyone. It's just part of the deal, when you're a part of a family.' Kitty typed in her computer.

* * *

Dean was sleeping but was woken up by the smell of a familiar scent.

He opened his eyes to find a beautiful red head sitting next to him.

"Hey! You're awake" Jean was excited to finally see Dean open his eyes. She hugged him tightly, "I was so worried about you"

Dean's face looked in pain, "Jean you're hurting me"

"Oh I'm sorry" she backs away from him.

Dean looks at his body and see's it all wrapped up in casts. He moved his fingers that weren't wrapped. At least his bones healed, now the rest of his body needed to heal.

"What happened to you?" Jean asked.

"Didn't Logan tell you?" Dean asked.

"No, Logan refuses to talk about it." She said.

"Well, all you need to know about _me_, is that I got punched by the Hulk. I can only tell you my part, Logan's is another story." Dean said.

"Isn't the Hulk supposed to be a raging monster?" she asked.

"You don't know the half of it" Dean said remembering what the Hulk did to him.

* * *

Dean awoke in the middle of the night unaware of what time it was, or at least he thought it was night. There was no way of telling since he was sleeping in the infirmary. But he felt completely rested, no broken or fractured bones, no aching muscles or headaches.

There was no way he was going to stay here until someone came to help him out of there, he would die of boredom.

Dean willed his legs to move and he did his best to stand upright, 'Hmmm, now how do I get these things off?' Dean wondered about the casts.

Dean focused all of his strength in his muscles and flexed them all simultaneously shattering the casts all around his body. Dean throws a few punches and jumps around the room, 'Seems that I'm back to 100%, and maybe more. Let's test that out' Dean thought with a grin.

* * *

Rogue woke up a little early today, she wanted to go visit Dean in the infirmary and she knew that he would be up early and extremely bored. She visited him yesterday but he was unconscious, and she wasn't going to wait around all night with Jean right next to her because that would have been awkward.

Rogue makes her way down to the infirmary and is surprised to find nobody in the room. The only remains she found were shredded casts. Rogue had an idea where he would go, the danger room. And she was correct, that's where she found him. He was wearing nothing but his uniform pants and he was throwing punches and kicks and was jumping all around the room.

She took the towel that was placed in the observation room and she shut off the gravity program before going down there.

"Hey what's the deal?" Dean asked sweating and panting.

"How did ya get out of bed?" Rogue asked with her arms folded over her chest.

"I woke up feeling fine so I took off the casts and I came in here about an hour ago." He said.

"Took off? More like shredded them off, how did ya do that?" Rogue passed him a towel.

Dean took the towel and started wiping the sweat off his body, "I flexed"

"Ya flexed?" she asked.

"I flexed" he admitted.

"Wow, and you completely healed, ya are a wonder." Rogue said, "Ya know, that's what am gonna call ya, wonder boy."

"If you think so" Dean shrugged.

"Ah think it suits ya" she said.

He came right up to her, "Do you now?"

Rogue could feel the heat radiating from his body, his recent workout left his muscles pumped to their maximum. Rogue was compelled to feel his body, to touch his smooth skin and feel just how toned he really is, but she knew better than that. She couldn't, not without hurting him.

"Well I think I'm done here" Dean said walking away.

Rogue exhaled deeply, sometimes having someone so close to her can be a little overwhelming, and that's not even considering boys.

All of a sudden Rogue feels a snap at her lower back side, "Ow!" she said.

Rogue looked back to see Dean swirling his towel, "Tag, you're it" he said with a smile.

Rogue grins and starts chasing him around the danger room, "Come back here!"


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32

_Road trip_

**At the Hideout**

Dean had started giving lessons to his fellow half-bloods after the incident with Jon's mother. If he was going to be going on adventures with them in the future he wanted to make sure they could fight properly, in all aspects. In the beginning Jon was a bit of a pain but meditation helped him, he still needs to resolve whatever problem he has though. Some of the other teens that lived in the hideout started showing up wanting to learn as well so he started teaching them all a basic fighting style.

"Alright everyone, today I'm going to assign you a partner. Someone that you'll be doing all your team exercises with until I say otherwise." Dean said to the group.

He paired everyone off with someone but he left the most interesting duo for last, "Jon and Billy"

"Aw c'mon, do I really have to be paired with him?" Jon complained.

"Well excuse me but you're not the best teammate either" Billy said.

Dean knew from when they first met that those two would have a special rivalry. Strength and speed, complete opposites and the outcome of the fight is completely unknown. Plus he figured it could be fun.

"Don't like it? Too bad. Now come on" Dean said leading them to their first exercise.

Teammates were helping each other get over a very high wall. One gave the other a boost and then he would help his teammate over.

"Know your comrade" Dean said as the duos performed, "The greater your knowledge, the deeper your trust."

Jon and Billy go next. Billy gives Jon a boost to help him up and he places himself at the top of the wall.

"Ok, now, you heard Dean. Knowledge brings trust" Billy said, "Ok?"

"Yeah, yeah" Jon gives him a hand, "Come on"

'Let's see what happens' Dean thought.

Billy jumped up and grabbed his hand and tried to pull himself up.

Jon chuckled, "I guess you don't know me that well" he drops him and Billy falls hard on his ass and some of the others laugh at him, "Oops"

Dean walked up to the ball and kicked it resulting in Jon falling down as well, "I said trust not spite Jon"

John looked a little embarrassed.

'We'll try teamwork another time' Dean thought.

They moved on to a different exercise.

Jon and Billy were standing on a bunch of wooden rods that were barely big enough to step on.

"The point is to be the last man standing." Dean said spinning around a wooden staff in his hands with cushions at the ends. "And remember, balance is key." Dean passes the staff to Jon.

Jon steps forward on the wooden rods in front of him shaking from his lack of balance.

"Oh, looks like Jon is a little off-key" Billy made fun of him.

Jon got mad and went for a leg sweep with the staff.

Billy jumped over it and flipped in the air before landing in the same spot.

Billy hits Jon's right leg making him wobble a little, "Balance"

Jon went to hit Billy in the face but he ducked underneath it and hit Jon's left leg, "Is"

Billy ducked underneath another swing and hit Jon in the chest, "Key!"

Jon topples over and falls down on his back. Billy and some of the others start laughing at him.

All of a sudden Billy's legs are swiped from under him and he falls over as well silencing everyone else.

"Respect all warriors" Dean said, "Friend or foe" he walks away. Dean has to set an example for them, even if some details aren't exactly true. You should always respect your opponent, but sometimes you just have to hit them in the nuts.

* * *

Billy was walking outside the hangout. "_Respect all warriors_" he said trying to imitate Dean, "What a know it all" Billy said juggling one of his short swords in the air. He accidentally drops his sword and it falls into a sewer hole with no cap.

"Aw man" Billy complained, "This stinks" he makes his way down into the sewer, "Nope I was wrong, _this_ stinks" he said smelling the awful sewer fumes. There were rats everywhere, but they didn't bother him. What bothered him was the he had to put his hand in the sewer water to find the blade his father gave him.

Billy put his hand into the water, trying his best not to puke from the stench and the possibility that he might be touching feces. He feels something sharp and pulls it out, he was glad to see his blade again but wasn't glad at how badly it stunk now.

"Man! How can you guys live like this? Really its everywhere" Billy was talking to the rats.

All of a sudden Jon jumps down, "What are you doing down here?" He covered his nose.

"I dropped my blade in the sewer hole" Billy showed him his blade that was covered with...nasty stuff.

"Ok come on, let's get out of here before I hear that we're missing a jackass" Jon said.

"Hey you take that back!" Billy said.

"You're right I'm sorry, can you forgive me?" Jon asked giving out his hand.

"Yeah" Billy gave him his clean hand and right as he shook it Jon pulled him in to the sewer water.

"Oh you're dead" Billy splashes Jon with the filthy water.

Jon gets pissed off so he pounds the ground with his fist creating a small earthquake making Billy trip and fall.

Jon goes to stomp on him but Billy trips him making him fall as well.

Jon and Billy start rolling around trying to get the other down. Jon gets on top but before he could do anything Billy started repeatedly hitting him super-fast and that let Billy escape.

Billy went for the ladder so he could get out but one of his legs was caught by Jon's hand.

Billy kicks with his free leg but it's caught by John. Jon then pushes Billy with all of his strength sending him flying out of the sewer.

Billy lands face first on the ground and Jon lands right next to him before shoving Billy's face into the dirt, "How's that taste?"

All of a sudden he hears someone clear their throat in front of him so Jon stops what he's doing and both he and Billy look to see who it is.

They saw a pair of black boots step in front of them. They looked up and saw a drop dead gorgeous blonde girl with blue eyes. She wore tight brown leather pants that looked as if they were made from real animal skin. All she wore on top was a light blue tank top that was low cut so it showed her thin and toned waist and well sized breasts. In fact her whole body was perfectly toned, not too much so she didn't look like one of those steroid freaks but enough for her to look outstandingly sexy. Oh and she was carrying a black duffle bag.

"Can we help you?" Jon asked staring at her.

"Do I look like I need help?" The girl said with a little bit of sarcasm.

Billy and Jon both got up.

"Uh, we thought you were lost." Jon said.

"Yeah, this is, uh, the hideout" Billy said referring to the building behind him, which earned him a punch to the shoulder from Jon for revealing that information, "Ow!" he complained.

"And you must be the grossly inept toilet cleaners" she said mocking their stench.

"Let me help you with that." Jon said offering to carry her bag.

"There must be sewer water in your ears" she said smacking away his hand, "I said I don't need help." She said sternly, "Ever" she walked passed them.

"Well then I guess we don't need to tell you that we're in charge of this place" Billy boasted.

The girl chuckles, "Yeah, whatever. I just came here because I heard on the streets that there were some skilled fighters with weapons here."

That caught their attention, "Wait, you're telling us that you're a fighter?" Billy asked.

"I am" the girl admitted.

"Well you can't be a fighter" Billy said, "I mean you're a..." He struggles to say it, "You're a..."

"Short" John said trying to save the situation.

The girl didn't seem to buy Jon's excuse and looked a little pissed, "Short eh?" She leg sweeps both of them letting them fall on their backs.

"Whoa!" They both say in unison.

The girl smiled, "Not only are you covered with it, you're also full of it" she steps on Billy as she walks into the hideout.

Both Billy and Jon stare at her as she walks away.

"She stepped on me" Billy said like it was a compliment and Jon just looks at him weirdly.

* * *

Tim was exercising in the training room with his staff trying to improve. "Hey Tim" one of the younger kids came up to him.

"What is it?" Tim said spinning his Bronze staff in his hands.

"There's a girl in the training room" he said.

Tim looked around and spotted her by the entrance checking out the room. Tim was so amazed at her beauty that he forgot what he was doing and hit his head with his own staff, "Ow" he looked back at her, "The fates have been kind"

The girl starts walking around the room. Nobody was used to a girl being around the training area, it was always filled with boys.

"It's a girl" one of the guys said.

"Oh yeah" another one said.

Some of the guys who were doing exercises start screwing up when she walked by.

"Maybe she's somebody's sister" another person said.

Billy and Jon were climbing ropes side by side.

"I'm only cooperating because you didn't tell anyone about yesterday." Billy said climbing down.

"Yeah well don't do me any favors, pal" Jon said.

"Well, well" the girl said stopping in front of them, "You two clean up well, for toilet cleaners."

She goes to grab one of the ropes but Jon pulls it back, "Whoops, sorry, I forgot, no help" he said looking at Billy.

Then she went for the other rope and Billy took that one, "Right"

Jon and Billy shared a small laugh.

The girl grabs both ropes and pulls her way to the top with just one pull.

"Oh yeah" somebody said.

"How'd she do that?" Somebody else said.

"You know guys" Tim said to Billy and Jon, "she doesn't need any help"

"Resume exercises!" Dean yelled walking in.

When the three half-bloods looked back the girl was gone.

* * *

Another day the three half-bloods were hanging out in the main area, all three had their minds on one thing, that blond girl they all saw.

Their train of thought was interrupted by sudden news.

"Hey Tim" one of the kids came up to him.

"What is it kid?" Tim was about to make a shot in table pool.

"There's been news about some destruction in Niagara Falls, it sounds like one of those monsters of yours." The kid said.

When he said monsters he caught his attention, "Let me see for myself."

**Back at the institute**

Dean was laying on his bed, thinking about what he could do to get rid of his boredom. It was a Friday afternoon and he had nothing to do. He came back from school, had his session with Logan, did some gravity training, and now he has no idea what to do.

He thought about taking a nap but the idea of sleeping in general lately kept Dean on edge. As a child Dean never experienced true fear, how could you when you thought you were the toughest person alive so in result of that nightmares are foreign to him. His loss to Daken has really taken its toll on him mentally.

As if on cue to keep him distracted from his troubles Jean walks in his room and closes the door behind her. She jumps on his bed and cuddles next to him, "What are you doing?" She asked.

"Literally nothing, kind of bored actually." He looked at her trying to cover his worries, "maybe you can fix that" he said with a grin.

"Well what do you have in mind?" She asked with her own grin.

"Something like this" he lays a small kiss on her lips, "or this" he kisses her a little longer than before, "or even this" he kisses her deeply with more passion and rolls on top of her taking charge.

Right as things were heating up Dean's phone rings interrupting them. He opens one eye and looks at the text message to see if it's important, and it sort of is.

"Wait a sec" Dean stops what he's doing and reads it carefully.

"What's wrong?" Jean asked. She looked at his phone and saw that the message was in a language she had never seen before, "What language is that?"

"Ancient Greek, Tim sent me a message saying that he wants to hunt down a monster." Dean's face falls right on Jeans chest, totally intentionally, "Aw man, he has the worst timing"

"So you're going?" Jean asked.

"Why do you think I'm bummed out?" He got off her, "I'll jump at the chance to see a real monster."

Jean sits on top of him, "Well you go do your thing, and I'll be waiting for you when you get back" she whispered in his ear before kissing him on the lips and getting off him.

Dean got up from the bed and tried to come up with an outfit that he could go with without having to come back and change.

His gauntlets are a must, he never takes them off anyways. His custom boots and gloves as well. His uniform pants would be useful due to their durability but he won't be wearing his complete X-man outfit with them, he wants at least one thing different.

"Hey I just noticed how much bigger your bed is than mine" Jean said stretching out.

"Probably because I'm bigger than you" Dean said looking for a shirt to wear.

"Ok I need to change" Dean said.

"Ooh can I watch?" Jean joked.

"If I can't see you naked yet then the same goes for you, now turn around." Dean said.

Jean rolls over to the other side of the bed, "I've been meaning to ask you, how have you been feeling since your fight with Daken?" she asked wanting to know the truth.

"I…."he hesitates, "I'll manage. I'm done"

Jean looks back over to find Dean in uniform except without the vest, basically shirtless for now.

"That was fast" Jean admitted.

"I can be fast when I want to." Dean said, "now what to wear on top?" Dean wondered out loud.

"Because something has felt different about you since your fight" Jean said sounding worried.

"You mean since I got my ass handed to me by that fucking asshole?" Dean said with hat in his voice.

Jean didn't like to see this side of Dean.

Dean picked out an old black shirt with skull designs on it, "Maybe this"

Jean didn't seem to like it, "You should wear something besides black, and add some color to your outfit."

Dean picked out a plain white T- shirt, "I'll go with this for now" he put it on.

"I guess it's better than nothing" Jean said. "And you shouldn't be so hard on yourself" Jean said as she came from behind him and embraced him in a hug.

Dean makes her get off of him, "No I should, I failed miserably and I almost let him take my life and all of yours" he grabs his bronze sword and straps it to his back for better mobility, "Alright well I'm outta here, I'll see ya later"

"Bye" Jean kissed him trying to cheer him up.

Dean didn't respond with the passionate kiss that he usually replies with. When their lips separated he simply said, "Bye" and proceeded going downstairs.

* * *

"So you think we're gonna go hunt a monster?" Billy asked Tim, "Tim, I thought you were enjoying your life the way it is, why do you wanna end it now?"

"Billy what happened to your sense of adventure?" Tim asked.

"It's alive and well thank you, and I prefer to keep it that way." Billy said.

"Well if we don't stop it who knows how many people that creature will kill?" Tim said.

"Well I guess that settles it" Jon said getting excited, "When do we leave?"

"I was hoping you'd say that" Tim admitted, "I wasn't looking forward to facing this thing by myself."

"You think I'm gonna let you take all the glory?" Jon said walking with Tim but Billy stood right where he was.

They turned back and looked Billy in the eyes.

"What?" Billy asked.

Their look stayed the same.

"Alright I'm in, all you had to do was ask. Sheesh." Billy said.

"I'm in too" they heard.

They looked to see Dean ready for action. Now feeling slightly better than when he did leaving the institute.

"Now you see, I like these odds" Billy said.

"Of course you do" Tim said sarcastically.

"What?" Billy asked.

"So where does this beast live?" Dean asked.

"It has been attacking houses around Niagara Falls." Tim said.

"How are we getting there?" Jon asked.

"The old fashioned way, walking. The only way for a half blood to travel" Tim said.

"Well I guess it's a good thing I came prepared" Dean said, "and it's good that it's Friday, so we have the weekend to do this"

"Out first adventure together, I wonder how it will end up?" Billy wondered.

"With your face splattered with it's blood I'm sure" Jon said to him.

"Guys we don't need him" Billy was referring to Jon.

"Uh, yes you do" Jon said.

"No, we don't" Billy said back.

"Yes, you do" Jon said back.

"**No**, we don't" Billy said.

"**Yes**, you do" Jon said.

"No, we don't but thanks for asking." Billy said.

"Oh well excuse me" Jon said.

"Nobody wants you—"Billy was cut off.

"Guys!" Dean yelled getting their attention, "put your differences aside, all right? Cause I need both of you. So let's go"

They take their things and leave. Not noticing that a specific blonde beauty was listening closely to their conversation.

* * *

With the pace that they were traveling at it didn't take them very long to get into New York, now they had a straight road ahead of them. Miles and miles of the open road. Hurray.

"You know, if I ran by myself I could have been there by now" Billy said complaining its taking so long.

"I'm sure you could have, but we're traveling as a group." Dean said.

"Hey, you think if I threw a log with all my strength and jumped on it that it would carry me for miles?" Jon wondered out loud.

"That would not work for multiple reasons" Tim said.

"Just wondering" Jon said.

They went silent again for a while before another conversation started.

"Hey Dean, the rest of us don't keep in touch with our parents, did you ever consider what it would be like to live without them?" Tim asked.

"I don't even wanna think about life without my father" Dean said.

"You get used to it" Jon said speaking from experience.

"He's always been there for me" Dean said.

"Mine was there for about three weeks out of every year. The rest of the time he was off on business" Tim said, "I mean, I hardly recognized him out of a suit."

"When I was a boy he used to take me fishing" Dean said, "He taught me how to wrestle, once we even went on a road trip together."

"Really? I wish I had that" Tim said.

"So? I never did things with my old man, and look how I turned out" Billy said.

They all just give him a blank stare and keep on walking.

"Anyways it's not like you know who your father is" Billy said to Jon.

"Actually I do" Jon said surprising them all and earning a few confused looks.

"Really? So who's your real dad?" Billy asked.

"It doesn't make any difference" Jon said trying to avoid the subject of his father.

"Huh. Oh! I guess that makes you a bas-" Billy was cut off by Jon's fist which he avoided.

Dean went in front of Jon and stooped him from doing anything else, "Hey, hey. No, no, no."

"Have you ever tried to see him or call out to him?" Dean said trying to distract him.

"No. Maybe one of these days" Jon said.

"What are you thinking?" Tim said smacking Billy at the back of his head.

"What? What did I say?" Billy said.

* * *

For a few hours now they've been walking in silence, besides the here or there direction suggestion from Tim. Dean had forgotten to ask Jon about his new weapon that he acquired, it somehow slipped his mind.

"Hey Jon, you never told us how you got that Ax of yours" Dean said breaking the silence.

That woke up Jon from the daydream he was having, "Oh, uh, well, uh" he seemed pretty nervous about it.

"Yeah I wanted to ask the same thing" Tim said.

Jon figured that he couldn't hide it forever and it didn't look good to hide things from his teammates.

"My father gave it to me" Jon admitted.

"Well when did this happen?" Billy asked.

"He approached me when I was alone the day we figured out Andrew killed my mother" Jon said sadly.

"So who is he? Which god is your father?" Dean asked.

Jon hesitated but he spoke, "My father is Ares, god of war"

"Whoa that's so cool!" Billy said.

Tim smacked the back of Billy's head, "Shut up dummy"

"What?" Billy asked clueless.

"Ironic. Your father thrives off of others fighting and killing each other, and yet you're the complete opposite." Dean said.

Jon chuckled, "Life is funny like that sometimes"

"No wonder you've been so angry lately" Dean said realizing it, "You must have some pent up aggression towards your father."

Jon's silence confirmed Dean's theory.

* * *

They came across a motel while they were walking in the middle of the night on the open road and decided to spend the night there. They walked in to the place and Dean goes up to the man at the counter.

"We need a room for four please" Dean asked.

"I'm sorry but the only room we have left has two beds" The man at the counter said.

"It doesn't matter we'll take it." Dean said, "How much for one night?"

"Its $80 per person, so the total will be $320" the man said.

Dean turns around to his teammates, "Ok guys, gimme your share" he said.

"Umm, my cash flow has been cut off, remember?" Jon reminded them.

"I didn't think we were going to need cash" Billy said.

"Wait hold on, I told you to take some with you" Tim told him.

"I didn't think we needed it, I could always just steal—"Tim smacks the back of his head.

"Shut up you idiot" Tim said so he doesn't give away anything, "Now where are we going to sleep?"

"You guys owe me one" Dean said paying the full price by himself.

"How much money do you carry with you on a daily basis?" John asked.

"Enough so that I won't worry about situations like this" Dean said.

They made their way to the room. Only two beds, and no couch.

"So how is this going to work now?" Tim said.

"Well I'm going to take one bed cause I paid for the whole thing. You three can figure out who gets the other one." Dean said jumping on one of the beds.

The three of them look at each other.

"Rock paper scissors?" Tim offered.

They go for it and try several times before Jon gets eliminated.

"Two out of three" Billy said.

Tim and Billy drew and Tim won the first round with a scissor against paper. Then he wins the second round with paper against rock, "Yes I win!"

"Aw man" Billy complained.

"Should any of us stand watch for 'monsters'?" Dean asked Tim, "Don't forget we're not in Bayville anymore."

"No it's not like we're in immediate danger, but because we're a group so we should keep an eye out to be on the safe side" Tim said.

"I guess I'll go first" Billy went outside, he wasn't really tired anyways.

Later on the next day they reached Niagara Falls and were walking through the natural woods part. And what a hot day it was. If Dean were to fight Blob today all he would have to do is let the sun beat him to a pulp.

"Hey guys, I just thought of something." Billy said, "if we pull this off we could get famous, welcomed in every town, free food, girls asking us to sign their naked flesh. I could get used to that"

"Well leave it to you to find the bright side." Jon said sarcastically.

"Actually Billy has a point, might give you a chance to give your arm a rest." Tim said laughing.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jon asked.

"Tim I think you're underestimating my best pal here." Billy joked putting his arm around Jon's shoulder, "Jon has the strength of 20 men, and his arm doesn't get tired." He joked again and they shared a laugh.

"Oh you guys kill me" Jon said not laughing, "Listen, I don't need to  
Brag about all the women I know, like some people do."

"Oh, wait a minute. Do I hear what I think I'm hearing?" Tim asked.

"An echo in your head?" Jon replied.

"You know what you sound like?" Billy asked.

"A virgin!" They say in unison laughing.

Dean took no part in this conversation, for good reason, if they only knew who was standing in their presence.

"Oh, well, wait a minute. Jon? No way!" Billy said.

Tim and Billy both look at him.

"Are you?" Billy asked.

"Guys, what difference does it make?" Jon said.

"Well" Tim said, "I think that if you weren't a virgin, you would probably know."

Tim and Billy share another laugh.

Jon has had enough of this so he lifts them both up from their necks.

"Whoa!" They say in unison.

"Look guys, I mean, I may be old fashioned, but I want my first time to be special, with somebody I care about. Now, is that a problem for either of the two of you?" He asked.

"No! Not a problem!" Billy said.

"A problem? No!" Tim said.

"This is great" Billy said.

"Yeah, it's respectable. It's classy." Tim said.

"I wish I was one" Billy said.

"Good" Jon says dropping them both.

"What are you eating?" Tim joked tapping his back.

Billy stops all of a sudden, "Shh, shh. Wait." He hears water splashing, "it's a naked woman. Bathing. Naked."

"How does he know?" Jon asked looking confused.

"It's a gift" Billy said, "come on" he runs to where he heard the splashing noises.

Jon, Tim, and Dean follow him out of curiosity.

Billy, Tim, and Jon peaked through some bushes while Dean stood back uninterested. They find a blonde undressing to take a dip in the lake. The same blond that they saw back at the hideout the other day. She was undressing and the three boys were ogling her curvaceous body.

"Hey it's that girl!" Tim said whispering.

"Yeah, and I thought you said she was naked." John said to Billy.

"She is naked...under her clothes" Billy said.

"Maybe she's lost?" Jon said.

"Maybe we should offer her our services, huh?" Tim said suggesting something.

"Congratulations, Billy, you were right. Can we go now?" Dean asked getting impatient.

"We can't just leave her there" Jon said.

"Yeah. This forest might be crawling with perverts." Billy said.

"Gee, do you think?" Dean said sarcastically.

"We'll get a better look down there" Tim said.

"Guys." Dean said.

The three of them went lower.

"Guys-guys" Dean sighs at their immaturity.

They make their way down but when they get there she is nowhere to be seen. They come out of hiding to look for her.

"Huh, she was right here." Tim said looking around for her.

"She must have seen us." Jon guessed.

"Where did she go?" Billy said backing away.

All of a sudden the blonde comes out of nowhere and holds Billy with a celestial bronze sword to his throat, "She's right behind you" she said with an evil smirk.

Tim and Jon draw their weapons.

"Let me guess" the girl said, "You thought I was drowning." She joked.

"Please don't hurt him" Tim said trying to reason with the blonde beauty.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't." She said glaring at him.

Tim and Billy stand there clueless as to what to say.

"Really guys? Not one good reason?" Billy complained.

"For one" they hear behind her.

The girl turns around to face Dean with his weapon drawn, "He's a little misguided, but basically harmless."

"Oh, gee, thanks." Billy said sarcastically.

The girl brings the blade closer to his throat to shut him up, "You think invading a woman's privacy is harmless?" She asked sternly.

"That's not what I meant." Dean said.

"Yeah, what did you mean?" She asked.

"That they're three morons who owe you a big apology." Dean said referring to his friends.

"Yeah. Miss, if you don't-" Billy was cut off.

"Shut up! What are you boys doing here?" She asked.

"We're on our way to slay a monster sighted in these areas" Tim said.

"Yeah, right. You're going to kill the Ghidra?" she said.

'I guess we know what we're hunting know' Dean thought.

"No, no it's true!" Billy said trying to improve his situation.

"Shut up! How do you boys expect to kill a monster when you can't even get past me?" She asked.

"She's got a point guys?" Billy said.

"Shut up!" The three boys say in unison.

"Now you see that's where you're wrong" Dean said grinning.

"How's that?" She asked.

"I saw the surprise on your face when I came behind you, you didn't even know I was there. If I wanted to I could have taken you out easily" Dean said challenging her.

She knew that he was right about what he said, even though she would never admit it. But something about this boy perked her interest, "I think I'll come with you." She said with a grin.

"What are you kidding?" John asked.

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" She said, "Sounds like fun. I got nothing better to do. Besides you boys look like you could use a little help."

"Tell you what, take that knife away from my friend's throat, and it might be easier for us to come up with a decision." Dean said looking her in the eyes.

She thinks about it and pushes Billy over to them revealing her half-naked body to them, "So, what do you say?"

Dean looked to his teammates and they all nodded in agreement.

"I guess you can come then" Dean said.

The girl grabbed her things.

"But" he wasn't finished, "I'm going to need a demonstration" Dean said flipping his sword around to show his skill, "catch my drift?"


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33

_The hunt for the monster_

"Alright, gimme a second" the girl took her things and went behind some bushes to get dressed.

Tim, Jon, and Billy took a seat on the sidelines giving them some moving space.

"This should be interesting" Tim said.

The girl comes back dressed in her tight brown leather pants and her black boots. On her leather pants was a light blue belt with a gold buckle. On her arms were arm bands and gauntlets. They both were encompassed in gold and light blue. Over her brow was a gold circlet that really highlighted her face.

On her chest she wore a specific female breastplate armor piece that was also highlighted in gold and light blue and it didn't cover very much but it fit her figure perfectly. It left her cleavage open enough to look very attractive and it was low cut so it showed off her hips. It seemed suitable for mobility and keeping an opponent distracted, particularly a male opponent, but Dean wasn't going to fall for that.

For weapons she held her bronze sword and a small shield to go with it, "I'm ready" she said getting into a battle stance. Her sword handle was made of gold while the blade itself was celestial bronze. Her shield was highlighted with gold and light blue colors.

Dean got into his own stance, "Then let's see what you got". This would be tricky, he doesn't want to hurt her but he still wants to test her skills. Ok forget that he doesn't want to hurt her, he literally can't.

The girl makes a quick slash surprising Dean cutting his forehand and face in two incredibly fast motions.

Dean touches the scar on his face and see's blood, "Hmm, you actually cut me, that's pretty good." He sends an overhand slash which she blocks with her shield and then he sends a slash to her left which she also blocks and elbows Dean in the chest in perfect rhythm sending him a few steps back.

'Excellent hand-eye coordination and timing' Dean thought.

As Dean goes to walk back towards her he ducks underneath a slice that would have taken his head off. Dean attacks her from the left and the girl blocks and counter attacks with a kick to his chest which seemed to have no effect on Dean.

'Very diverse fighting style' Dean thought.

She slashes to the right, then to the left but he blocked both so she spins around and hits Dean with her shield.

She thrusts her sword straight forward and Dean leans to the left avoiding it right as she spun around and hit him with her shield and ending with hitting Dean in the head with the blunt part of her sword.

'Ouch, that hurt' Dean thought rubbing his head.

The girl attacks with an overhand chop but Dean manages to block her attempt, as he does she slides her blade down cutting him by his bicep and continuing with a slice to the thigh to try and cripple him and he falls to one knee.

She goes for an overhand chop again trying to end the battle but Dean blocks the blow and rises as if nothing had happened.

The girl struggles to keep Dean down with all her strength but she just can't do it.

"Impressive" Dean admitted, "That was a decent warm up" he grinned.

The girl's eyes went wide with shock that her attempts seemed ineffective.

Dean uses his superior strength to push her back and she is forced to take a few steps back from the force of the blow.

The girl rushes to close the distance between them but Dean quickly brought up his sword to point at her neck, keeping her from moving any closer.

The girl knocks his blade out of the way and continues to attack. She tries hitting him high and low but can't seem to touch him.

She dashed forward with her shield in front of her hoping to knock him off balance but when she did Dean didn't budge one inch. She thrusts her sword forward making him move out of the way and continues with an underhand swing which he blocks.

She thrust her sword low cutting his thigh before jumping with an overhand thrust aimed at his head but Dean moves carefully and avoids it while throwing the girl away from him.

The girl lands softly on the ground and fakes an attack with her shield and punches him in the face before ending with an overhand swing which he blocks with his own swing that shakes her up from the force of it.

She regains her focus and thrusts her sword low again but this time she follows up an even lower swing aimed at his legs but Dean jumps over it.

The girl seemed frustrated that most of her attacks weren't getting through, she swings her sword to the left and right and follows up an underhand swing but Dean blocks them all.

Both of their blades start clashing and the girl can feel the power in his thrusts starting to tire her muscles faster than they should.

Dean blocks an incoming attack and grabs her other arm so she doesn't move but the girl manages to escape his grasp and swing around her sword.

Dean ducked underneath the swing and blocked another blow before taking her weapon from her hands disarming her and points her own sword at her.

The girl's face was priceless, she looked like she'd either never lost before, or she never lost to a guy.

Dean lowers the blade and hands it to her, "Nice work" he said with a smile, "You're good, no you're great. Your skill with a blade is amazing, you have been taught well."

The girl's face seemed even more shocked at how Dean is reacting.

* * *

After they had put their differences aside they all walked together, Dean and the girl walked in front while the other three walked behind them.

"By the way, my name is Dean" he said walking with her.

"I'm Lilith" she said.

"It's nice to meet you" Dean said, "So you're a half-blood right? I mean you do have a celestial bronze sword to prove it"

"Yes, I am a half-blood" Lilith admitted it.

"So who's your God parent?" he asked.

"I am the daughter of Apollo" she said proudly.

"Hmmm, does that mean you can handle a bow and arrow as well as you handle a blade?" he asked.

Lilith pulled out a magnificent golden bow from her bag, "I'm even better with my bow" she boasted.

"You just might have to show me some time" he said.

"You seem like a pretty decent guy, Dean" she looks back at the others, "What are you doing hanging out with those three cow tippers?"

"Well, they're my friends. I trust them with my life." Dean said.

"Honest and loyal. Maybe it's not such a bad thing I ran into you after all." She said.

"What were you doing out here all alone anyway?" Dean asked.

"Please, don't start with that 'The forest is no place for a woman' crap or I'll puke." She said.

"That's a pretty big chip on your shoulder." Dean noticed.

"Let me guess. You're just the guy to take it off." She said sarcastically.

Dean sighs, "Just making conversation"

"Its ok, let's just say my life has taken a drastic change recently and I'm still trying to get over it" she said.

"Well what is it?" He asked.

Lilith feels that she can trust him with at least a little truth.

"I am a former amazon" she said proudly.

"Whoa Amazon? That's really cool" Dean admitted, "Not only are you the first girl half-blood I've ever met but you're an amazon too."

"Former amazon" Lilith reminded him.

"Why former?" Dean asked.

"It seemed that my kin and I didn't share the same opinion on men. They think women should enslave men, I believe there should just be equality. So I left." She said. It seemed like a touchy subject she didn't want to go into right now so she changed the subject, "What about you? Let me guess. Perfect home life. You've got a dog and a car. Your mother bakes and your father takes you fishing."

"Close, but oh so far" Dean said, "Had a perfect home life, never owned a pet, my mother does bake and my father used to take me fishing. Now I live a completely different life from what I ever thought possible."

"How so?" she asked.

"Maybe I'll tell you later" he doesn't want to give her his whole life story right away.

Lilith rubs her biceps from the soreness, "You are abnormally strong. Every time our swords met I could feel your strength."

"Well I can lift more than 1.5 tons so you should feel lucky that I held back" Dean said.

Lilith was more than surprised at that statement, "Maybe you do have the strength to lift that chip off my shoulder after all." She said.

"You haven't seen anything, Jon can lift at least 20 times as much as I can." Dean said.

The others weren't as delighted as Dean was, "Well they seem to be hitting it off." Billy said.

"Yeah, wonderful. I'm stuck back here with you." Jon complained to Billy.

"Well I'm not enjoying this either" Billy complained.

"You got to have that body pressed against you." Tim said.

"She had a knife to my throat" Billy said.

"Love hurts" Tim said.

Suddenly they all hear a girl's scream.

"That sounds like trouble" Tim said.

"Let's go!" Dean said so they all ran towards where they heard it to investigate.

About a dozen guys surrounded an innocent frightened girl.

"C'mon babe we just wanna play" One of them said.

"Yeah, we won't hurt ya, much" another said going to grab her.

"I wouldn't do that I were you" they looked around to see where it came from and spotted Dean and the others standing there, "That would cause all kinds of problems you don't need right now" Dean said with a grin.

"I suggest you beat it punk, before we decide to rip you apart" he and the rest of them drew weapons, knives, crow bars, steel pipes, and baseball bats.

Dean laughed, "Oh this is going to be fun, let's show them what we got" he told his friends. They all charged in.

"C'mon let's have some fun" Jon said charging like a bull. He picked his opponents apart with single punches that rendered them unconscious and their attacks had no effect on him.

Dean ducked underneath a swing from a crowbar and gave him a right hook that knocked the attacker out.

Another came behind him but Dean front kicked him away, literally away. Then he turned again to dodge a stab from a knife and bashed him in the head rendering him unconscious.

Tim blocked a swing from a baseball bat and smacked the attacker in his behind with his Bronze Staff making him jump up from the sting. Then he blocked a swing from a steel pipe and kicked his attacker in the gut.

Billy used his new found skills to pick them apart one by one as they charged at him. One of them ran at Billy with a knife but he tripped the attacker which sent him to the floor where Billy punched him in super speed knocking him out, "Float like a butterfly sting like a bee!"

Just as he said that someone was about to leap on him from behind but Billy ducked and let the attacker fly over him.

Lilith dodged a swing from a crow bar and elbowed the attacker in the face. Another guy came running at her and Lilith close-lined him right on his neck. She then swept another incoming enemy right from under him and double ax handled him midair making him crash to the floor.

Someone from far away threw a knife at her and was about to strike but before it could touch her Dean caught the knife. Dean then threw the knife back at him and pinned him to a tree.

"Nice throw" Lilith said.

"You know it was" he grinned.

"My hero" she joked.

In no time at all they were all finished. When they looked around for the girl that was here before they realized she must have ran off in the middle of the fight.

"Looks like she took off" Jon said.

"Man, we never get appreciated" Billy complained.

"We should probably set up camp somewhere and rest for the night" Tim said.

"What about them?" Lilith pointed to the thugs.

"Leave em', we got better things to worry about" Dean said.

* * *

While Billy was keeping watch for the night the rest of them sat by a campfire. Tomorrow they would finally engage the Ghidra. Jon was taking an early nap so he could get some rest and Tim was playing with his gadgets.

Dean looked at Lilith and could see something was off about her, he took a seat right next to her.

"You look uneasy, nervous?" Dean asked.

"I wish that's what it was" Lilith said.

"Well I understand. I mean we're all scared of what lies ahead." Dean said thinking of his own nightmares.

"No, it's...it's more like what's been left behind." Lilith said, "Look, Dean, there's something you should know about me. I'm not what you think."

"What do you mean?" He asked.

Billy speeds by, "I'm so bored by myself! Can someone keep me company?"

"Just shut up and go" Jon said turning the other way.

"Let's go" Tim said grabbing his things.

Lilith seemed to move away from what she was talking about before, "So what did you mean earlier about your life changing?" Lilith asked.

Dean feels like he can open up to her a little now so he explains about his mutant life.

"You're serious?" she asked not believing people like that exist.

Dean shrugged, "Believe it or not people with extraordinary powers exist, and I'm even one of them." He admits.

"Oh so what can you do?" Lilith asked testing his word.

"Well I guess you could say I can open portals to other dimensions, but I don't know the extent of it." Dean said.

Lilith seemed intrigued, "Show me"

Dean looked skeptical about it but he was also curious to see if he could do it again, "I don't have complete control over it, but I'll try." He holds his hands out and focuses deep into his body to try and find that sensation he felt when he opened the portal to the Underworld.

He did all he could but nothing happened.

"Are you sure you're doing it right?" Lilith made fun of him.

Dean ignored her and kept on trying. What did he need to do? Did he need to focus on the destination? That sounded like a good idea so he tried it. He envisioned the hell place with its red sulfury atmosphere and its stench of death. He even imagined the spot where they first ended up.

All of a sudden something shot through his system like a bullet and it burst through his hands and formed a small hole in which you could see the place where he brought the X-men the first time.

"Holy!" John jumped up from where he was sitting.

Lilith looked inside the hole, "Where is that?" she asked.

Dean stopped what he was doing and the small portal closed, "Don't ask" Dean got up, "I'll go stand watch" he said before he left without saying another word.

**A few hours later**

"So I tell him, 'Dean, you don't wanna mess with me, cause you're gonna get your ass kicked' but does he listen, no, instead he engages me in combat." Billy was telling his version of his fight with Dean.

"He foolishly attacks me thinking he can out maneuver me but fails epically." Billy said.

"Jon, your turn to stand watch" Dean came back.

"So then what happened? How did you beat Dean in the end?" Lilith asked trying to get Dean's attention.

"Oh, no, really, it's...it's...it's quite...so Lilith" he cleared his throat, "the amazons, why?"

"It's not important" Lilith said.

"No we'd like to hear." Dean said.

"Yeah come on" Billy said.

"Yeah tell us" Tim said.

"Well, not long ago my home was attacked by a beast. We fought hard to try and kill the monster, but it was too great a task. So it took away all my loved ones" she spoke with sadness in her voice, "I watched my own mother die, and I vowed to avenge her death..."

Everyone else chose to remain silent.

"And forever let her soul rest in peace."

"I'm sorry" Dean managed to say.

"Well if you have your own mission why are you with us?" Tim asked.

"It's personal, but if we manage to kill the Ghidra, I'll know I'm ready" she said.

"Oh man" Billy laughed a little, "I would love to have seen you fight that beast, you probably got a lot of good hits. I'll bet it didn't see that coming, especially from a... from a...short person." He said.

That last part seemed to affect her more than it should have. She walked into the woods.

Dean and Tim gave Billy a blank stare.

"What? What?" Billy asked.

Dean went after her.

"Real smooth" Tim said.

"What? What'd I do? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Dean finds Lilith sitting by the lake. He goes up to her, "Hey"

"What do you want?" She asked sternly.

"I just wanted to apologize for Billy. I mean, he, uh, he says stupid things sometimes." He said, "He can't help it"

"It's just nerves" she turned away from him, "I'll go relieve Jon on the watch"

"Wait." He said and she stopped, "Something's bothering you. You wanna talk about it?"

"It's nothing. Just never mind." She goes to walk away.

"You know, its ok to need people" Dean said catching her attention. She turns around looking him right in the eyes, her eyes were tearing. "Once in a while"

"I wasn't truthful back there." She sniffles, "when my home was attacked, I ran and hid, in the woods. From there I watched the death of my whole family, from the Ghidra. I didn't do anything" she starts completely crying, "I was too afraid." She turns away from him and bangs her hand on a tree, "My mother!" Lilith sobbed.

"I'm so sorry" Dean said, no wonder she came with them, this _is_ personal.

"I'm such a coward. I should have stood up to it when I had the chance." Lilith said.

"You had no idea that was going to happen, it's not your fault." Dean said.

"Yes it is, I should never have left her. I should've taken care of her." She said.

"You had to take care of yourself. You did the right thing. If you had been there you'd have been killed too." Dean said.

She wipes her tears, "Look at me. I'm crying."

Dean pushes back her hair to show her face, "You don't have to be so tough around me." Dean hesitates but puts his hands on her arms and tries to comfort her, "That's the past, it's gone. Let it go. If you had stayed you'd have been killed too. I'm glad you didn't." Dean said sincerely.

"If I can help destroy the Ghidra, then I'll know I've overcome  
my fears. And pray that the gods will forgive me." She said.

"This time I know it'll be different." Dean said reassuring her.

Lilith sighs, "I hope you're right"

Dean started thinking about his own situation. Is this how Jean saw him when he rambled about his failure? Should he focus on the important part of his fight, that they all came out alive in the end? Dean knew that was probably true, but his pride would not allow him to think like that. For him to lose that badly is a disgrace to his family name and legacy.

* * *

Later on while the teens were trying to sleep, Lilith didn't seem to be able to fall asleep. And Dean noticed this since he couldn't fall asleep either.

"You ok?" Dean asked Lilith.

She looks at him, "Yeah." She sighs, "No. I don't know. I know I'll feel better when we find that Ghidra and slice it open"

"You'll get your chance." Dean said.

"Thanks Dean. Thanks for everything" she said opening up to him.

"I didn't do anything." Dean said trying to sound oblivious.

"Yes you did. You gave me the strength to face my past. I could tell you really cared and that you weren't doing it for my looks. No boy has before." Lilith sounded genuine. "You're the first guy I've ever really trusted, you're decent."

"Well to tell you the truth, I did think you were pretty when we first met, but that's not why I helped. I find it necessary to help those in need. Besides I have a girlfriend"

"I guess that explains your behavior" she said towards him having a girlfriend.

"You know you really assume things very easily" Dean commented.

"Am I wrong to think that you would have come onto me?" She folds her arms over her chest.

Dean shrugs, "Who knows" he said, "Depends on my mood" he joked.

Lilith laughed softly to keep the others from waking up, "You're funny"

"So I've been told" Dean said laying back down.

* * *

The next day the gang of half-bloods were searching for the Ghidra's lair.

"It was last sighted in these areas so its lair should be around here somewhere" Lilith said.

"Alright then let's split up, that way we'll find it faster" Dean suggested, "Tim and Billy go that way while the rest of us go the other way"

They all agreed and they went their separate ways.

* * *

Tim and Billy found an interesting looking cave, one that didn't look like nature made it. Tim messaged Dean his whereabouts, "This looks like the place" Tim said looking in the cave.

"Are you sure?" Billy asked.

"Only one way to find out" Tim said walking in.

They walked inside the dark cave and saw it filled with bodies and skeletons, "yep, this is it"

"I think I know that guy" Billy said pointing at a skeleton.

They walk deeper into the cave and hear a growl from the beast which startles them.

Billy yelps and goes to run out but Tim grabs his shirt and pulls him back.

"Maybe it's full" Billy chuckled trying to lighten the mood.

"Let's hope it doesn't snack between meals." Tim said.

"You, uh— you ever killed a monster before?" Billy asked Tim.

"Plenty of times" Tim said.

They heard a louder growl that made a chill crawl up their spine.

Billy taps Tim on the back, "Maybe you should go first"

"What, are you scared?" Tim asked.

"No. Yeah." He admits.

"Me too" Tim said going first.

"So where is it?" Billy said looking around.

"How should I know?" Tim said.

"Maybe we should've made an appointment." Billy said.

All of a sudden they hear the loud growl of the beast behind them so they turn around with their weapons drawn and ready to face danger.

The Ghidra had two heads that looked like they belonged to Alligators except there were spikes on its head and it was humongous. Like an Alligator's skin the top half was scaly and rock hard while underneath it was smooth and it was purple. It had four chubby legs and a tail that resembled a scorpion's tail with a stinger at the tip.

"You didn't tell me it has two heads." Billy said.

"It slipped my mind" Tim said.

"Anything else you forgot to mention?" Billy asked.

"Yeah. That stinger on it's tail, its instant death." Tim said pointing at it.

The tail shoots at them but they dodge to the side.

"Anything else?" Billy asked not sounding very happy.

"Yeah. It breathes fire too." Tim said.

And right as he said that the two heads opened their mouths wide and burst out flames.

"Duck!" Tim said.

"Whoa!" Billy yelped as he leaped out of the way.

"Anything else?" Billy asked again.

"That's about it" Tim said getting back up.

They both distance themselves from the creature.

"You ready?" Tim asked.

"No" Billy replied.

"Yes you are" Tim reminded him.

They slowly inch closer to the fire breathing beast.

"We gotta work together here." Tim said readying himself.

Both of them tried cutting and piercing the skin of the monster but nothing happened.

"Oh! It's gonna blow!" Billy leaped out of the way as he saw large amounts of smoke coming out of both mouths.

Tim ducked to the floor avoiding being incinerated by mere inches.

After the mountainous flames died down they both got back up.

"That's one tough Ghidra" Tim said sweating from the heat.

"Yeah, tell me about it" Billy said also sweating a little.

The stinger flies at them again and they both leap out of the way avoiding it.

The stinger aims for Billy but he dodges it.

While it was preoccupied with Billy, Tim went up to it and started thrusting his bronze staff into its skin but again nothing changed. The Ghidra notices Tim's attempts so it bursts fire out of its left mouth to get rid of him. Tim leaps out of the way of the fire.

Billy hides behind a boulder from a fire breath from the right head. Billy goes to move to a better location but trips and falls. The stinger travels towards Billy but he quickly rolls over avoiding it once again.

The Ghidra then sends its stinger at Tim who manages to cut the tip off which enrages the beast.

Tim helps Billy up, "I think I made it angry" he said.

Right were the stinger was cut off on the Ghidra's tail it regrew right before their eyes.

"You didn't tell me it could do that" Billy said.

"I didn't know it could do that" Tim admitted.

John, Dean and Lilith finally arrive and draw their weapons.

"About time you got here" Billy complained.

"You could have waited for us" Dean said avoiding some of the flames.

"It doesn't matter we could use the help" Tim said avoiding the newly grown stinger, "See what I mean? Whoa!" he leaps out of the way of incoming flames.

"Ok. You take the right head" Dean said to Tim, "You take the left head" he said to Billy, "John you're the strong one so you go up the middle and keep it at bay" he told him. "Lilith it's time to see those archery skills of yours, I need you to either take out its tail or keep it busy long enough so it doesn't go for anybody."

"The tail will only grow back if you cut it off and its skin is like rock, I don't know how were supposed to kill this thing" Tim said.

"I'll try and find a weak spot. Ready? Break!" they all spread out.

Tim attacked the right head jabbing with his Bronze staff. Billy attacked the left head with quick slices from his short swords.

John jumped on the beast and grabbed both heads in an arm lock to the best of his ability and kept it from moving, "The tail! Get the tail!" John shouted spotting the stinger aiming at him.

Lilith had her bow and arrow ready to shoot but was picking her moment to strike.

Billy narrowly avoids flames that char his face and hair, "This is getting personal" he complained.

As Tim was attacking the right head he got too close and the head knocked into him sending him flying back, "I thought you were keeping it from moving" Tim said.

The Ghidra mas moving side to side and up and down to try and shake Jon off, "It's being difficult!"

Billy was now dodging flames from the left head and avoiding the stinger, "Little help here!"

Dean was faced with a serious problem, he needed to find a weakness. But where would he find a weakness on a creature he knows nothing about, besides that it looks like a two headed alligator. Wait a minute…he remembers leaning about alligators in his biology class. Their skin on the top of their bodies are really hard but their bellies were their weak points.

"Lilith I need that tail taken out right now!" Dean said drawing his sword.

Lilith finally finds her opening, "Got it" she releases the arrow and it hits the tail and pins it to the stone wall.

The two heads shake off Jon and send him flying into Billy.

"It's going very well. We're gaining on him." Billy said sarcastically.

"Guys hit it in the gut!" Dean said charging at it.

Jon went back to his position and kept it in place while the rest of them surrounded it and kept on poking at the monsters belly until Dean managed to pierce it.

"Yes!" Billy yelled out right before green gew spurted out of the hole and went all over him.

Jon took his hands off the necks of the heads and bashed them with his fists blinding them.

From its confusion the Ghidra had no other choice but to charge a massive flame blast so its mouth started smoking like before.

"Everyone back away!" Lilith said aiming an arrow. The boys moved behind where she was, away from the blast radius. She aimed her arrow right for its mouth, "This is for my family" she shot her arrow in the beasts mouth right as it was about to burst causing it's whole body to explode into pieces.

"Yeah! Oh! We bad! Ooh!" Billy chanted.

"You bad alright" Tim joked.

"Remember what I said before we left?" John said.

"Shut up!" Billy yelled.

Dean approached Lilith, "How're you feeling?" he asked.

Lilith closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "At peace"

* * *

The half-bloods we're sitting outside the now dead Ghidra's lair, tired from slaying the monster.

"Man now we have to walk all the way back home!" Billy pouted.

"It comes with the job requirements" Tim said.

Dean was sitting right next to Lilith, "So what're you going to do now?" he asked.

"I don't know" Lilith replied, "I'm free to do whatever I please." She said with a smile on her face.

"Why don't you come and stay at the Hideout with the guys?" Dean offered.

Lilith pondered on that thought for a moment, "Maybe, I'll have to think about it"

"Well keep in mind that we'll be doing stuff like this a lot" Dean said.

"How do you know that?" she asked.

"Call it a hunch" Dean grinned.

All of a sudden they hear an aircraft soar through the air and float right above their heads. They look up to see a blackbird.

"What the hell?" John said.

"Well I'm in no mood to walk home" Dean said, "So I'm going to fly home" the X-jet lands right in front of them. "You guys are welcome to tag along"

The three boys look at each other and run inside the jet.

Dean looks at Lilith, "You coming?"

"No I think I'll walk, I could use the exercise" she said with a grin"

Dean shrugs, "Suit yourself. I'll see you around" he gets inside and the jet takes off the ground.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34

_The Cauldron_

**At the Institute**

Dean drove in on his motorcycle with Jean riding with him. Dean drove as fast as he could to get to the garage and parked it right in front, not even bothering to put it inside.

He jumped off the bike and ran inside the house, "Oh yeah! Let the summer vacation begin! Woo-Hoo!"

"Wait you're forgetting your homework" Jean said but she was too late, he was already in the house. She sighed, "Make that ignoring it" Jean gets off Dean's bike and goes to enter the mansion when she hears something in the bushes.

"Hello?" she said out loud. She saw someone moving around. "Kitty, are you climbing trees again?" she looks in the bush and only spots a glimpse of someone leap away.

"Evan? Is that you?" she goes deeper into the woods to look for whoever is there and comes across the old well that's right by the mansion.

Jean hears something behind a bush and uses her telekinesis to move it out of the way revealing Toad, "Oh so that's the way you wanna play, Huh?" he leaps at her but Jean ducks letting him jump over her.

Toad grabs a tree branch and breaks it to use it as a weapon.

"Toad, what are you doing?" she asked.

Toad used the tree branch to sweep her legs and Jean fell on her back.

"Gettin' a jump on the competition, yo" he said spinning the stick in his hands, "Heh heh, you want some of this?" he went to hit her with the stick but Jean stopped it with her telekinesis.

"Toad, what are you trying to prove?" she asked as she forced him backwards.

"That I'm a champ not a chump, yo. And guess what? We all gotta prove it" he goes for a swing with the stick.

"Would you knock it off!" she stops him mid swing and breaks the stick with her telekinesis.

"Huh?" he looked at the broken stick in his hands, "Can't throw a Toad away." He chucks the piece of wood and leaps at her.

Jean uses her telekinesis to send him right into the old well, "Ahh!" he yelled as he fell inside and hit water with a loud splash.

Jean went over to the well, "Toad?"

All of a sudden she hears a rumbling sound in the air, Jean looks up to find a metal sphere approaching her. The sphere lands right in front of her.

Jean approaches the sphere and can clearly see her reflection on it. The sphere opens and let's out some steam, Jean goes to look inside when metal tentacles come out of the sphere and pull her inside of it, "Ahh!" she yelled but before she could call for help she was pulled inside of the sphere and it closed.

Toad used his tongue to help him up by wrapping around the wooden support beams for the well and spots the metal sphere in the air leaving. "No. It wasn't over. I could have still won. It should've been me! ME!" he yelled out.

**On the beaches of Hawaii**

A young blonde haired teenager surfed the Hawaiian waves.

"Alex!" another teen yells from the shore.

"I don't see him" His friend tells him.

"There he is" he spotted him lying on his surfboard, "Lounging the bum. Wanna paddle out there?"

"Nah. He looks like he just wants to be alone. We'll catch up to him later." They walk off the beach.

Alex swam with his board to an area where he would be undisturbed by waves of any kind so he could just relax and bathe in the sun. He lied down on his board and faced the sky. He felt his hands being very sore again so he stretched them out to the sun to try and relax them but they stung.

All of a sudden he fells a slight bump underneath his board, "Huh?" He goes to look to see what it is when something made the board flips over resulting in him falling in the water. Alex grabbed his board to help him float. He felt something pass by his legs, that can't be good.

Alex looked behind him and saw a shark fin approaching very fast. Alex tried to get on top of his board but slipped and went under. Alex saw the huge shark open its jaw ready to bite a chunk out of him, out of fear he put his hands out and out of them cam red beams that hit the shark right in its face sending it a few feet away.

Alex doesn't know what to think about what just happened but his thought are interrupted by the shark coming closer once again. Again Alex puts his hands out and a bigger red beam comes out that hurts the shark a lot. Alex saw the shark swimming away with its mouth smoking.

Alex comes back up and gasps for air. Alex lays on the water in a dead-ma's float position, not wanting to move from the pain and soreness he's feeling from his red glowing hands.

Alex looks at his hands and they stop glowing right in front of his eyes, "What?"

**At the institute**

Logan walks into the giant domed Cerebro room, "So what's the case this time?"

"Cerebro has pinpointed the emergence of a new mutant, only partially developed." Charles said.

"Yeah so what's the emergency?" Logan asked.

"His name is Alex Masters, once known as Alex Summers, Scott's brother." Charles said.

"Brother?" Logan asked, "I thought Scott was the only one to survive that plane crash."

"Yes, so did I, and so does Scott. Have him meet us in the hangar" Charles told him, "We're flying to Hawaii" Charles removes the helmet. "Oh, and, uh, Logan…let's be prepared for trouble. I doubt we're the only ones who have an interest in this young man."

**Hawaii **

Alex sat on the shore of the beach afraid and confused at what happened an hour ago. He looks at his aching hands, "Aw..man what is goin on with me?" he asked out loud as he laid back on the sand.

A shadow suddenly loomed over Alex that blocked the sun, "I know the kind of pain you're feeling, Alex" someone spoke, "I once had it myself"

"But….wha?" Alex gets up quickly startled by the man in red armor, "What? Where did you come from?"

"I've just arrived to see _you_, because I know—"

"You don't know nothing' man! Just back off!" Alex walked away, "Creep"

"Your bones, they burn. Your hands ache. The pressure in your head. I can give you relief and answers. You never have to feel pain again" He said.

"You some kind of doctor?" Alex asked.

"No, Alex. I am Magneto" He floats above him, "And I have come to offer you, sanctuary" he gives him his hand.

**At the Institute**

Logan was inside the X-jet getting it ready for takeoff when he spotted Charles speaking to Cyclops and suddenly he had a very surprised face.

"What? My little brother...he's…he's..." Scott struggled to say the words.

"Alive, Scott. Alex is alive" The Professor said.

"Oh, man. I thought he was gone or—or I would've been looking for him. I should have been looking for him! I mean, I just accepted it!" Scott was mad at himself, "Why didn't I—"

"Easy, Scott. Take a breath" The professor put his hand on Scott's shoulder, "Don't blame yourself"

"But all this time…where has he been?" he asked.

"Well, as far as I can determine, living with foster parents in Hawaii." The professor said.

"Then come on, let's go" Scott ran inside the x-jet and the professor followed.

Right as Rogue, Kitty, Evan and Dean walk in the x-jet leaves.

"Hey, what's the deal? I thought we were Hawaii-bound." Evan said.

Kurt teleports right in front of them wearing beach clothing and holding a boogie board, "Here I am, ready to give my all to the cause. Hula-hula" Kurt notices everyone else had a sour face so he looks back to see no x-jet, "Oh, Man!"

"We got totally ditched" Rogue complained.

"Hey you can't blame Scott. Meeting a brother he hasn't seen in, like, 10 years? I wouldn't want a crowd either" Kitty said, "No way"

Dean snaps his fingers, "Hey, Hawaii doesn't have the only beaches in the world, right?"

Everyone looked at him sort of lost.

"Hello? Road trip anyone?" Dean suggested with a smile.

A couple of minutes later Dean was on his bike while the rest of them took the x-van. They exited a garage and scared a cat that was passing by. The x-van stopped and opened the roof. Kurt was in the driver's seat and Kitty and Evan were waiting for Rogue.

"Hustle it up Rogue!" Evan shouted, "Before Auntie-O shows up and dry docks our plans."

As Rogue came running towards the car a cat ran by her feet, "Shoo! I hate cats" Rogue got into the van and the cat went into some bushes.

"I couldn't find Jean so I left her a note" Rogue said as they drove off following Dean.

After the van was out of sight the cat comes out of the bushes and morphs into Mystique. Mystique talks into a communicator, "Change of plans. They're on the move."

"Not for long" She hears Lance's voice.

**Hawaii**

The X-jet landed on the beach where Cerebro sensed Alex earlier.

Scott looked outside, "You see anything?" he asked.

"No" Logan said, "And the tide's coming in. This cove will be underwater in an hour"

"Take a closer look around" Charles said.

Scott and Logan left the x-jet and searched the shore of the beach. They came across a surfboard that seemed abandoned or forgotten.

"Do you think it's his?" Scott asked.

"Maybe" Logan said before following Alex's trail. He followed his footstep patter to a point where they just disappeared. "Hmm, looks like company dropped in on him, literally, and left the same way."

"What kind of company?" Scott asked.

Logan sniffed the air and recognized the scent, "Magneto"

"Who?" Scott asked.

Logan ignored the question and continued to scout the area.

"Logan, who's Magneto?" Scott asked again.

"I got a feeling you're about to find out" Logan said.

The Professor was still in the x-jet and was sending out a telepathic message. 'I know you're here, Magneto. I can sense it. Show yourself'

Right as he said those last words the X-jet started to rumble and move. It levitated off the ground and started rotating.

"It's him!" Logan said running towards the x-jet.

Right as the x-jet left the ground Logan grabbed onto one of the landing wheels and left with the flying vessel.

All Scott could do was stand there speechless as to what happened. Out of nowhere a shadow covers the sun that was hitting him and looks over to see who or what is blocking it. He sees a teen around his size but still a few inches shorter with blond hair, "Alex?" he said not believing his eyes, "Is it really you?"

"Scott? Scott!" Alex runs down from the cliff he was standing on.

Scott runs at him as well and they embrace each other in a giant hug.

"Man it's like you came back from the dead!" Alex said, "I've had dreams just like this"

"Me too! Oh, wow! Man, this one's real though, and look at you. What happened to that scrawny little kid I used to pick on?" Scott joked.

"Oh, hey, that reminds me" Alex hit Scott on the shoulder, "I owed you that for 10 years"

"Ha ha, and you still hit like a girl" Scott joked rubbing his shoulder.

"Believe me, bro, there's more to this punch than you know. I still can't believe it. When Magneto told me you were showing up I—"

"Whoa. Wait. Magneto? You're with him? That guy just kidnapped my professor" Scott said.

"No, no, no. You got it wrong. He told me all about it. He just wants to show him something. Come here for a second." Alex leads him somewhere.

Scott was skeptical but he followed.

"He wants to show all of us" Alex said.

"All?" Scott asked.

"Yeah, you know, mutants" Alex said.

"He told me you were one. And guess what, so am I. See? Check this out" Alex made his hands glow red, "I couldn't believe it. I got these powers growing inside of me. Man, I was freaked out until Magneto clued me in. He's great Scott. He knows so much. He wants to meet with us, that's all." Alex led him to a giant open metal sphere, "I'm going. I mean, how could I not? But you gotta come too, ok?" he asked.

"That thing there" Scott pointed at the sphere, "It'll take us to Magneto?" he asked.

"Yeah, come on. It's kind of scary, you know? But exciting, please?" he asked his brother.

"Ah, this just doesn't smell right, Alex. But….I'll go, just to keep an eye on you and to find Professor X" They climbed inside the sphere and it closed before shooting off into the same direction the x-jet went.

* * *

The X-jet flew through the sky uncontrollably with Logan slowly climbing it. Inside the X-jet Charles tried his best to get the jet to start working or at least stabilize it but it was no use, the controls weren't responding.

'Charles, Relax' Magneto spoke to him telepathically, 'I am in control'

"What is this about Magneto?" Charles spoke.

'I am simply taking steps to ensure our survival. We both know that humankind will not only learn of us, but they will fear us, for we are the future. And what man fears he tramples. So I shall be ready for them.'

Suddenly metal claws appear from the roof of the jet.

'Ah yes, Wolverine. The man with the adamantium claws'

Logan feels his body not respond to his commands and his claws start to bend around.

'Of course adamantium is a metal'

Logan's body starts to hit the jet back and forth against his will.

'And I'm sure you must realize that I….am the master of magnetism'

Logan's body flies of the plane and he lands in the ocean relatively close to an island.

**At the institute**

Storm walked into the mansion and noticed it was considerably quiet, "Hello? Anyone home? Professor?" she walks around to see if somebody is here when a cat passes by her feet, "Oh, hello, you're not quite the Kitty I was hoping to see. Can you tell me where everyone's gone?"

Storm walks up the stairs, "Logan?" the cat follows closely behind her. As Storm was walking through the hallway she saw the shadow of the cat change into a human one, "Well, look what the cat dragged in." Storm turned around to face Mystique.

Storm summoned thunder to her hands.

Mystique jumped at Storm but was zapped by her thunder midair and was sent flying down the staircase.

When Storm went down Mystique drop kicked her into a statue. Mystique went for another kick but Storm moved out of the way and Mystique's foot got stuck in the wall.

Storm summoned strong winds that shot out of her hands and blew Mystique away. Mystique grabbed onto the railing on the staircase to keep her from flying away. Sadly Mystique's grip wasn't strong enough so she went flying upstairs.

Storm got up and went up the stairs in search of the blue intruder.

Mystique leaps on her and they land on the ground struggling to get on top.

Storm kicked Mystique off of her and Mystique landed softly on the ground.

"Give up, and I'll make this quick, wind rider. I shouldn't even have to prove myself to him." Mystique said before trying jump kick her but Storm avoided the attack.

"I don't know why you have chosen to attack me. And in truth I don't much care" Storm created fog inside the mansion making it impossible to see two feet in front of yourself, "This is my home. And you are not welcome here." Storm appears out of nowhere and gives Mystique a heavy right hook that knocks Mystique out cold.

Storm then extinguishes the fog to see better and right as she does a metal sphere crashes through the roof of the mansion. The sphere opens up and tentacles grab Storm and pull her inside before leaving again.

* * *

"Oh, man. You feel that ocean breeze?" Rogue said enjoying the feeling of fresh air touch her skin, she was wearing something that covered her body slightly less. "I've been going into meltdown here, all covered up like this, I hate it."

"Ya? You should try being blue and furry." He switches off his image inducer showing his true blue form, "Its murder"

"Kurt, the road!" Rogue yelled.

The road up ahead looked like it was sprouting rock spires. Dean moved to the side with his bike and Kurt avoided it as well but not as smoothly as Dean. They ran into the railing that's supposed to keep them from falling off the road but luckily they stayed on the road.

All of a sudden the van is smashed into by a jeep. The jeep smashes into them again.

"What is going on?!" Kurt asked.

Kitty looks back and spots Lance driving the jeep with the rest of his crew, "It's the Brotherhood!"

Avalanche creates a few rocks to sprout out from the street to shake up the van.

"I'll slow 'em down" Evan said as he shot a few spikes at the jeep. He manages to hit the headlights but not a wheel.

Avalanche slows down and goes right behind them so they're out of firing range and causes a rockslide on the side of the road leaving Kurt no choice but to go off road and take a path that leads down to a beach.

"Whoa!" they all yell out in unison.

As they trail down the dirt road they spot Blob up ahead blocking the way. Blob props his huge gut out and stops the car right in its tracks, "Come here often?" Blob asked.

Avalanche stops his jeep right behind them, "Let's party" he said.

Blob grabbed the x-van and forced the x-men to fall on the sandy beach.

Avalanche willed the ground to suck them in like quicksand until they couldn't see them anymore.

"Hey man, that didn't take too long at all" Toad said.

Kurt teleported behind them with Rogue and she touched Eileen getting her out of the way. Kurt tackles Lance while Rogue then drop-kicks Toad.

Kitty phases Evan out of the sand.

Dean was hiding behind the cliff right above the Brotherhood. He eyed Daken carefully and was filled with rage and fear. Fear for what Daken might do to him this time, and rage for the revenge he should take on his rival. He knew full well he needed to help his friends in this battle, he might be a little afraid of Daken but he is no coward.

Dean appears out of nowhere and lands an aerial kick to the back of Daken's head, "Gotcha!"

"Time to prove yourself, Evan" Pietro zipped over to Evan who wasn't feeling so good already and pushed him onto the sand.

"And you're staying behind!" Blob shouts as he jumps through the air and lands on Kitty. Kitty phases out from Blob looking like someone just hit her with a train.

"Yuck, Blob I like totally need a shower now" she said right before she passed out and landed on her back on the sand.

Kurt was on top of Lance trying to wrestle him but it wasn't working so he teleported on top of a pile of solid ground boulders.

Lance quickly sends a shockwave to the pile of boulders and breaks them apart resulting in Kurt teleporting again but accidentally taking a few of the rocks with him. When Kurt deported he landed on the sand and was buried in rocks immediately.

Pietro started running circles around Evan and started slowly burring him in the sand, "I got you beat and you know it, Evan!"

Evan tried to get him with spikes but he was too fast.

"Cause I always speed to the top" Pietro stood on the pile of sand that was covering Evan from head to toe.

Dean was doing his best to avoid Daken and Fever pitch but it was getting considerably difficult.

"Um Rogue, a little help here would be nice" Dean said dodging a fire ball.

Rogue zapped Toad with an EM blast taking him out, "I'm on it"

Dean was hit in the face with a punch from Daken that made him stager back, "What's the matter meat bag, too chicken to fight alone?"

That last part really stung in Dean's pride, he wanted to attack Daken badly but he knew he stood absolutely no chance and he felt like something was holding him back. "No, just waiting for the right opportunity" Dean said right before getting out of the way of Rogue's EM blast that hit Daken full force.

Dean then grabbed Daken's body and threw him at Fever Pitch which hit dead on and took him right out of the sky. Dean walked up to him and knocked him out with one punch. Dean looked at Daken's unconscious body and felt the urge to let his rage out on him but kept himself focused.

"Alright who's next?" Rogue said sounding pumped with adrenaline.

"Relax, Rogue. It's over" Lance said.

"And here comes your reward" Blob said pointing at the incoming metal spheres.

* * *

Logan made his way to shore and is trying to catch his breath from swimming so hard. Logan suddenly sniffs a familiar scent.

"You look tired." Logan hears from behind him. He looks over to the cliff and spots Sabertooth, "Hard to stay afloat with metal bones, huh?"

"Why do I get the feeling I wasn't dropped here by accident?" Logan said out loud.

"Huh. You got that right, Bub" Sabertooth mocks him before charging at him. Sabertooth tackled him while he was still down.

Sabertooth jumped in the air to try and stomp Logan but he moved out of the way. Sabertooth tries to slash him with his paw like hand but misses and leaves a claw mark on a tree.

Logan tackles Sabertooth and brings him to the ground but before he could do anything Sabertooth kicked him off.

Logan landed safely on the ground and unsheathed his claws on one hand, "Tell me where Magneto took Xavier and maybe I'll go easy on ya" he unsheathes the claws on his other hand, "Maybe."

"Hey, he had it easy. A free pass to sanctuary, while the rest of us gotta fight to get in, which actually suits me just fine." Sabertooth said with an evil smirk before charging at him again.

* * *

The X-jet was still flying through the air but it seemed to be getting closer to an object in the sky. Charles eyed the object as it got closer and realized it was a giant piece of floating rock in the sky that had a base on top of it.

"What is this place?" Charles asked.

"Welcome Charles, to Sanctuary. Asteroid M." Magneto said.

The X-jet landed and Charles came out of it and faced Magneto, "What is all of this about?" he asked.

"A rebirth" Magneto said, "Your X-men face a trial by fire, as do my own…..recruits. Mutant pitted against mutant. One shall lose, one shall win. Only those who emerge victorious shall take their place here on Asteroid M. Once gathered here in this place of solitude, they can then fully realize their mutant abilities, safe from those who might mistreat them."

"Magnus, don't do this. We can introduce ourselves to mankind as friends, not enemies." Charles said.

"You are an idealist, Charles. I am a realist. It's a dark future that rushes towards us, and we must face it prepared." Magneto walks away.

As Magneto walks away he moves Charles's wheelchair to move with his pace.

"The gathering is almost complete" Magneto said, "Just Wolverine and Sabertooth to go" they continued walking and they entered a wide chamber. "A storm is coming for mutant kind, Charles. And our resolve must be ironclad. Side with me, not against me."

"Your invitation begs the question, what happens to those who won't come willingly?" Charles asked.

Magneto leads him away, "If necessary, sometimes salvation must be force fed." He shows him his students asleep inside glass pods. Rogue, Jean, and Storm.

"Magnus you haven't saved them, you've abducted them" Charles said.

"A certain amount of persuasion may still be needed, I'll admit." The Brotherhood that passed the test and Dean stand behind Magneto, "But for every unbeliever…." A metal door opens and Scott and Alex walk through, "there is a new convert"

'Scott no!' Charles thought.


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35

_The Cauldron: Part 2_

Toad sat alone at the shore of a beach feeling worthless while a couple of flies seemed to be bothering him.

"I don't get it. I'm strong. I'm agile" Toad shot his tongue out and ate the fly, "I got this killa tongue. How could I be left behind? Twice?" Toad shot out his tongue to eat another fly when it was caught by Kurt.

"All right spill it Toad" Kurt said holding on tightly to his tongue, "What just happened? Where'd the others go?" he started pulling the tongue.

"Ak ak" Toad managed to say.

Kurt let go of the tongue and it shot right back into Toad's mouth.

"Yeah, I don't owe that crummy Magneto nothing no more, that's for sure." Toad said.

"Who?" Kitty asked.

"Magneto—one major mega mutant." He approached them hopping, "He's screening out the best from the worst, and we lost. Guess what that makes us." He formed an "L" on his forehead, "Losers."

Kurt grabs Toad from his uniform, "What happens to da winners?"

**Asteroid M**

Scott and Alex walked in wearing the same outfit. Blue jeans with white t-shirts, brown leather jackets and black boots.

"Scott, I—I don't understand." Charles said surprised to see him willingly here.

"Professor wait! We're just here to listen, that's all" Scott said.

"What about them?" Charles said pointing to the glass pods behind him that had Rogue, Jean, and Storm in them, "Are they here to listen as well?"

"Hey, what's going on?" Dean said just noticing them.

"Simply a precaution, Dean. Not everyone has the maturity to accept the need for change as you do, not yet." Magneto said.

"Let them out, now!" Scott said holding his visor ready to blast him.

Lance stepped forward ready to interfere.

"I will, we just need to proceed cautiously." Magneto stopped Lance, "Trust me. They are perfectly safe" he said.

'Are they safe Scott?' Charles spoke to him telepathically, 'Are any of us safe? I know this man well, his motives cannot be trusted. He's bitter—'Magneto noticed the confusion on Scott's face and knew Charles was talking to him telepathically. He willed the wheelchair into a glass pod and it closed.

Charles quickly spoke to Logan telepathically, 'Logan! Lose the battle! Magneto is—'Charles was rendered unconscious from the gas that came out inside the pod.

"No!" Dean said going to smash the glass.

"Do that and he'll not survive the decompression" Magneto said.

"Yeah? Well odds aren't great for you either" Scott said ready to blast him.

"Hey, hey, hey, Scott, come on man! This is no good." Alex stopped his brother, "They're having a little time out. So what? Look, I don't get it either, but no one should be getting hurt here. You can't blame Magneto for being careful. And all I know is that he just wants to help, and I need his help. So come on, holster that thing would ya?"

Scott puts his hand off his visor, "Ugh, I don't like it"

"But your brother is right, Scott." Magneto said taking off his helmet, "I'm not your enemy, nor am I Charles's. Very soon, you will see the truth."

* * *

Sabertooth kicked Logan and made him skid along the ground. "Lose the battle? I don't get it Charles" He charges back at Sabertooth and gets tackled.

They start rolling down a cliff until Sabertooth lands on the bottom. Then Sabertooth pushes him over and gets on top.

Logan kicks Sabertooth and goes flying into a tree. Sabertooth breaks right through the tree and skids on the ground.

"I know about Magneto" Logan said.

"Huh! Then you know I'm the one who belongs at his side, not you." Sabertooth said.

"You're right, not me" Logan retracted his claws.

Sabertooth hit Logan with a left hook to the jaw and he fell off a cliff. Sabertooth looks down and spots Logan laying there motionless, "AH HA HA HA!" He starts laughing maniacally.

A metal sphere comes from the sky and opens up in front of Sabertooth. Sabertooth gets in the sphere and it shoots through the sky. After its gone Logan gets up and spots the helicopter that Sabertooth used to get here.

**Back at the Institute**

The remaining X-men and Brotherhood went back to the mansion.

"Vhoa vhat happened in here?" Kurt said noticing the mess.

"Oh my gosh" Kitty said.

"This place is trashed!" Evan said.

Toad hopped in, "Aw man, you guys live like slobs"

"Storm? Storm?" Kitty started calling her, "Hey are you in here?"

Mystique jumped from above and landed softly on the ground, "She's out. Can I take a message?"

"Hey! If you're still here, then that means you're a loser too! Haha" Toad started laughing.

Mystique grabs Toad by his uniform, "Don't ever call me that!"

"What _are_ you here for…..mother?" Kurt asked.

"Simple truth." She let go of Toad, "Nobody discards me, especially not Magneto after all I've done for him. So I'm paying him a visit. We can go together, or I can go alone." Mystique said.

"Oh you won't be alone" They hear behind them. They look to see Logan, "If Magneto's got our friends then we're going after him."

"Good, but I know the man, so I'm calling the shots." Mystique said folding her arms over her chest.

"Heh!" Logan goes real close to her, "Then get your own ride. X-men let's go" they followed him to the hangar.

Toad, Fever Pitch, Phantazia and Daken wait for Mystique's orders. "Oh, alright, fine!" She pushes Toad forward, "But I expect to be consulted" they entered the hangar and were seated in a chopper sort of vehicle. It looked like a combination of a chopper and a jet.

"Welcome to the first test flight of the XM-Velocity" Logan said as they shot off through the sky.

**Asteroid M**

Scott was sitting by a balcony where he could stare out into the sky. He started thinking back to the day of the plane crash. They only had two parachutes so his parents gave them to him and Alex.

"Scott!" Alex woke him up from his day dream, "Are you ok?" he asked.

"I'm just….I don't know, remembering." Scott said looking back at the sky.

"Yeah. Still wakes me up at night." Alex said thinking back.

Scott had pulled Alex's parachute for him and then pulled his own. After that there was an explosion that sent flaming metal pieces of the plane raining down on them. One actually hit Scott's parachute and he started descending much faster than he should have.

"I hit the ground pretty hard. And I spent a month in a coma. The hospital said I was the only one who made it. I wanted to be there for you Alex. Really I did I'm sorry" Scott said sincerely.

"Hey don't sweat it you know? I got along all right, my foster parents are pretty nice." Alex said.

Scott saw Alex rubbing his hands, "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Ah, man, joints are on fire. I've been to a bunch of doctors but nobody could tell me what it was. Until today, when I met Magneto. Now I know what I am" Alex said.

Scott sighed, "How has he promised to help you Alex?" he asked.

"Not just Alex, Scott" Magneto said cutting in, "You as well, everyone! Together we shall embark upon a wondrous renaissance. I invite you to be a part of it" Magneto leads them back inside where Dean and the rest of the Brotherhood were waiting.

"I built it right into the asteroid. Behold the next step in mutant evolution." Magneto said gesturing to a closed thick metal door.

"What is it?" Dean asked.

"A genetic enhancer. Perhaps you've heard of the legendary gems of Cyttorak."

"They were known for giving the ancients great power" Dean said.

He pulls out a small red gem from his belt, "Well they do exist" he holds it up in the air to show it, "Once believed to possess mystical properties, these stones actually emit a very distinctive radiation."

"Hey wait a minute! You mean you're gonna nuke us?" Alex asked.

"I'm going to _evolve_ you! To finish your growth. No more pain Alex. And no more hiding behind that visor Scott. Your Powers will be fully realized giving you complete control." Magneto said.

"What about them?" Scott asked about his sleeping teammates, "I want em' released"

"They will be, but only after you've gone through the transformation. I want them to see what I'm offering." Magneto willed the door to the chamber to open, "And it is an offer Scott. I won't force you to go through it"

Dean was being abnormally silent for a situation like this, Scott was hoping to have someone back him up.

"We're supposed to just trust this thing works?" Scott asked, "You go through it then"

"I have. I am fully advanced. But why don't I provide you with a real firsthand demonstration. Sabertooth" Magneto said.

Sabertooth walked inside the chamber and a purple light shined brightly.

"In a few moments he'll emerge…..reborn" Magneto said.

* * *

The Velocity shot through the air getting closer to Asteroid M by the second.

"Heh heh! Oh yeah! This thing cooks!" Logan said as he increased the speed.

They all felt the speed increase as they were glued to their seats.

"Hear that metal straining?" Toad said getting scared, "We're breaking up I know it!"

"Couldn't be. This crate's built without an ounce of metal." Logan said smiling.

"None? That means were flying in what? Cheap plastic?" Phantazia started panicking, "I need an airsick bag"

"I've got something huge on scanners. Asteroid M. 463 miles and closing.

* * *

The chamber opened emitting massive amounts of purple light. Sabertooth emerged from the chamber looking bigger, hairier and meaner than before. As he took steps the ground shook slightly from his weight and strength. He growled out loud and it sounded like a wild tiger's roar which startled the teens in the room, except for Dean.

"Boys…"Magneto spoke to all three of them, "It's time to reach your full potential"

"What do you think Scott?" Alex asked his brother, "I want to, but…" he rubbed his hands, "But not without you."

Scott looked at his little brother in pain and decided to just go with it. Scott smiled and put his hand around his brother's shoulder. They started walking to the chamber.

"What of you?" Magneto asked Dean.

"Let me see how they come out first" Dean said standing completely still not even bothering to look at him.

"And now for an appreciative audience" Magneto said as he willed the pods to wake up the imprisoned X-men.

They slowly gained consciousness and saw Scott walking in the chamber with Alex.

Jean gasped, "Scott, No! Don't!" she started banging on the glass.

'Scott, I know what Magneto is doing' Charles spoke to him telepathically, 'This thing will alter your mind, get out of there, please!

Right as Scott was about to run out Magneto shut the door on him to keep him in there.

'Too late Charles, he's mine now' Magneto thought.

Scott and Alex were starting to panic after the door closed on them. They see the purple light start to increase in the room.

"We have to get out of here" Scott said and right as he said that pain shot through their bodies.

They waited for the duo to emerge. The chamber door opened and they came out of the blinding purple light. All the x-men were curious to see what would happen to them.

"Come…the world awaits you" Magneto said getting better look at them.

They now seemed to be at their prime age which means they grew a lot and for some reason they had silver hair just like Magneto's.

"Pain's gone" Alex said feeling his hand.

"And you shall be called….Havok" Magneto said to Alex, "Go on Scott, show us the color of your eyes"

Scott removed his visor to show onyx colored eyes. He looked around and could see perfectly.

'That doesn't seem like its right' Dean thought.

"Another benefit to your enhancement…your minds…they're purged of useless emotion. You should have a clearer perspective of our dominant roles here on earth." Magneto said.

Magneto then focused his attention on Dean, "So what is your decision…..Achilles?" he asked using his mutant given name.

Dean was truly wondering whether this was a good idea or not. All that power, it could be at his fingertips just by sitting in there for a few seconds. He could just imagine not needing to wait for his prime age and not needing to train to unlock his full potential. And he'll probably be able to fully control his portal powers. Dean looked at the gauntlets on his hands and asked himself, 'Is it worth it? He would never have to train again, he could focus on better things to do in his spare time. And imagine the worlds he could explore with his power.

**_'_****_In your heart you know the choice you must make" _**Dean heard Zeus's voice in his head.

Dean knew that there was a part of him that really wants to enter the chamber and become the best that he can be. But the thing he thrived for all the time is to not have limits, to overcome any limitations his body gives him and shatter them. What if he achieves his maximum and isn't satisfied…."No" Dean said which surprised Magneto beyond measure.

"Don't you want power? Don't you wish your abilities were at their best?" Magneto asked.

"Of course I wish I was better, but the difference is I'm willing to try and improve on my own, not use some machine to do it for me. There is no honor in that" Dean said.

Magneto was truly amazed at the way this boy felt, he is obviously not like any other mutant he's ever met.

All of a sudden an alarm goes off and red lights start flashing.

"Aircraft" Sabertooth said.

"Really. Let's see who it is." Magneto said opening a hatch that reveals the sky above them. Magneto see's the aircraft and attempts to pull it down but doesn't work. He tries again but his attempts are futile. "No metal!" he realized looking at Charles.

Charles smiled and shrugged.

"Boys..." He spoke to Cyclops and Havok, "Defend us"

The duo moves outside where they can see the aircraft and Scott's eyes flash red.

From inside the Velocity Logan saw Scott's eyes flash red, "Scott?" he approached not expecting to be shot down when Cyclops shot his red beams from his eyes and Havok shot blue energy beams from his hands. Both beams hit the side of the plane to disable it.

The duo ran back inside as the Velocity came crashing down and slowly slid its way inside.

Jean saw the aircraft getting closer to them as they ran in, "Scott? Scott!" she used her telekinesis to move them out of the way.

The velocity stopped moving when it hit a wall which made a bunch of boulders fall on top of Scott and Alex.

Shadowcat phases Spyke out and Nightcrawler teleports out. The rest of them get out through the side door.

"Knock knock" Mystique said.

"Mystique, you never could take no for an answer" Magneto said.

Mystique charged at him before he could use his powers against her.

Wolverine cut the cables above the pods releasing all the imprisoned x-men.

"Where's the x-jet?" Wolverine shouted.

"Observation deck, that way!" Charles said.

"Gather there o—"Wolverine was stomped on by the new and improved Sabertooth and crushed the ground beneath his feet.

"Storm, Rogue, prepare the jet" Charles told them and they ran towards the observation deck, "Jean, let's get to Scott and Alex"

* * *

Blob charged at Nightcrawler who teleported at the last second and appeared behind him and kicked him in the back, "A body in motion stays in motion" Nightcrawler said as Blob ran face first into a rock hard wall and fell on his back knocked out. Because Blob hit the wall the chamber door opened.

* * *

Avalanche created a shockwave that made Spyke fall to the ground and was about to be crushed by some incoming rubble if it weren't for Shadowcat phasing him out of there in time.

"Huh?" Avalanche said as Shadowcat phased out of the ground in front of him and Spyke kicked him in the gut with his strongest kick knocking the wind out of him.

* * *

Dean and Daken immediately met in front of each other.

"You're not going to escape this time" Daken said cracking his knuckles.

Dean had no choice but to face him, no matter how much his brain is telling him to run he can't just abandon his friends, "Believe me" Dean tossed aside his jacket looking intense, "I won't need to" Dean knew that was a lie. He would probably have to avoid his opponent altogether. He was about to start their battle when he dodged an incoming fireball from behind him. "And yet again you bring a friend with you" he starts moving purely on instinct to dodge and block any incoming attacks from both his attackers. Fireball, punch, kick fireball, fireball.

'There's got to be a way I can use this to my advantage' Dean thought as he blocked a fireball with his gauntlet.

* * *

Mystique leaped backwards as she tried to avoid two floating metal rods that were chasing her, courtesy of the master of magnetism. They missed her as she hid behind a boulder but they turned back around like boomerangs and smashed through the boulder as she leaped out of the way.

Magneto almost managed to intercept her with a kick of his own as Mystique was distracted but Mystique was a little faster. Magneto sent the two metal rods at her again but one was caught by Toad's hand and the other was caught by his tongue.

This gave Mystique the opportunity to strike. She jumped at the master of magnetism only to have a random metal object crash into her and sent her into the power-up chamber.

"No! My enhancer!" Magneto yelled, "Get out of there!" he flew inside after her.

* * *

Sabertooth hit Wolverine in the gut with a heavy punch that knocked the wind out of him and made him fall to his knees. Sabertooth went to stomp his head but Wolverine jumped back avoiding it.

Above them Toad was standing there with the two metal rods he caught.

Wolverine kicked Sabertooth into a wall with an outlet on it and Toad threw one of the rods at it and it exploded.

* * *

"Came back for more, eh, Evan?" Quicksilver said as he ran circles around him and hitting him every so often.

"Hey, been here, done this." He fills his whole body with spikes, "New game!" he shoots them all in a straight line.

Quicksilver is forced to stop in his tracks in order not to step on one, "Whoa! Tire hazard!" as he stands still Spyke grins at him. 'What the hell is he smiling about?' Quicksilver thought as Rogue touched him and took his life force.

Storm was trying to open the way to the x-jet with her thunder so they could all leave but it seemed to be taking longer than it needs to

The whole asteroid started shaking immensely.

"Enough with the tremors man!" Blob told Avalanche.

"That ain't me, this rock's cracking up!" Avalanche said. All the steel pipes and rocks above their heads started to bend and break from the pressure.

'Scott are you alright?' the Professor was trying to communicate with him telepathically.

'Oh, please, Scott' Jean thought as she levitated more rocks from the rubble.

* * *

Dean had come up with a sort of plan to try and handle his situation, let's see if it works. Dean reversed his movements and started moving towards them. First thing he did was knee Daken in the stomach and knocked Fever pitch right into him.

Fever Pitch started throwing lots of fireballs in annoyance but couldn't hit him. Fever Pitch got mad so he charged up a flame in his mouth and to his surprise Dean ran right at him but what he didn't know was that Daken was right behind him.

The second Fever Pitch was about to unleash his hellfire Dean moved out of the way and Daken got hit with the full force of it. Fever Pitch realized it too late so when he stopped there wasn't much left but a pile of charred bones and tiny amounts of flesh.

'Try and heal from that' Dean thought. He felt a big relief leave his body right then and there.

Before he could react Fever Pitch shot a giant flame from both his arms together.

Dean didn't have time to dodge so he did the only thing he could, he crossed his hands in front of him.

Fever Pitch's flame totally encompassed Dean. When he stopped to look at his victim he was dumbstruck when he saw the sight of Dean with just burned clothing.

Not letting that happen again he quickly knocked out Fever pitch with a fist.

'Thank Zeus for these babies' Dean Thought about his gauntlets.

* * *

Toad hopped in front of Blob and Avalanche, "Now let's make like a Toad and hop to it"

"Hey which side are you on Toad?" Avalanche asked.

"The side that lives, come on!" he led them towards the x-jet.

As Storm was trying to clear a path with her lightning she heard some stomping behind her, "Coming through!" Blob shouted as he charged at the rubble. He broke right through the rubble and the door.

Everyone started running out, "Get aboard the jet quickly!" Storm told everyone.

Rogue zipped over to Storm, "Scott and his brother are still buried! And Wolverine's got his hands full!" she told Storm.

"Go!" She told Rogue who zipped out.

* * *

Daken had miraculously healed from almost being completely incinerated and was back at it with Dean.

Dean noticed everyone making a run for it and the whole place falling apart, "Looks like we're going to have to cut this fight short" Dean said feeling relieved he doesn't have experience another loss. He would love nothing more than to test his skills on Daken again but he knows that they're not good enough yet.

"No! We need to finish this!" Daken growled.

"Maybe some other time dog breath" he sprinted for the exit.

Daken leaped at him but missed, "Come back!" he yelled in rage.

* * *

Wolverine jumped at Sabertooth and slashed his chest but Sabertooth recovered quickly and grabbed Wolverine and smashed him into the ground.

Sabertooth roars out loud but before he could try and finish Wolverine a tornado formed and blew him into some rubble.

* * *

As Jean was trying to free Scott and Alex a red beam shot through the rubble and destroyed the rubble above them.

Jean shielded herself and the Professor from any damage from the explosion. Scott and Alex come out coughing from the dust.

Scott takes a look around and notices the destruction, "You and the others….you're ruining everything! This was our chance to unite, all of us"

"Unite? For what Scott? And at what cost?" Jean asked, "Look what Magneto did to you!" she said.

"He's helped me! I'm evolved. No more training. No more hurdles. My powers are now at _my_ mercy!" he said squeezing his fists.

"Yeah. So you blasted your friends with it. I mean how united is that?" She asked.

"You don't understand. We _are_ the future" Alex said pointing to himself.

Jean looks at Scott, "Really, Scott? I mean are you the future? Because if you are, I don't want any part of it" Jean walked away tearing.

Scott's heart started aching, he didn't know why but something Jean said must have affected him more than he knows.

"You're right, mutants shouldn't be divided, but we didn't draw the line. Magneto did" Charles said, "And it's still there, you've just crossed over it" Charles rolled towards the jet.

The two brothers look at each other.

"Man what was I thinking?" Scott said out loud.

* * *

The Professor rolled into the jet.

"What about the boys?" Logan asked.

"They'll do what they must" Charles didn't say another word.

* * *

The asteroid was now filled with explosions. The chamber opened up and out came a totally different looking Mystique. Her body now was immensely muscular and almost looked masculine.

Right as she walked out Daken walked right up to the machine and wondered if he should attempt to try it….

* * *

Logan started the engines on the plane and was about to take off. Jean looked outside to see if Scott could be seen anywhere but nothing. She looked over to the Professor.

"We couldn't force them. They're too powerful" Charles said to her.

Jean looks back and spots them, "Oh, here they come!"

Scott and Alex came running across the platform but just as they were in reaching distance to the X-jet the platform broke and the jet fell down.

Before the jet could hit the ground head on it fired its boosters and soared through the air.

Asteroid M's gravity stabilizer must have been destroyed because it started flipping over which resulted in Scott and Alex to slide off the platform.

"Whoa!" they yell in unison.

In midair they hold hands just like they did when they were falling from the plane crash. They look at each other and they know what to do. They shoot their beams at the ground to slow their decent and soften the icy ground below. They finally hit the ground and they land in a huge puddle of water.

The x-jet floats above them and comes lower so they can get on. The door opens and Jean is there waving, "Scott!"

Scott couldn't help but smile and out of nowhere the Asteroid starts to fall from the sky. Before it does though, two metal pods shot through the air.

Scott and Alex could clearly see that they needed to destroy Asteroid M in order to escape.

"Ready Bro?" Scott asked.

"Ready!" Alex said with his fists glowing blue.

They both fire their beams in unison and hit he center of the asteroid together. The asteroid's descent slows down a bit and explosions increase throughout the whole base. The beams shoot clear through the asteroid right before it exploded into a million pieces in midair. Too high up to be dangerous.

The explosion sent some sort of energy shockwave that reversed the effects of the power up chamber.

Scott and Alex changed and turned into their old selves. Alex collapsed to the floor while Scott closed his eyes out of necessity.

Jean walks over to them with Scott's visor in her hand, "Easy Scott, I'm here."

"Jean….is everyone ok?" Scott asked.

She put on his glasses, "See for yourself"

Scott opened his eyes to see the red image of Jean smiling. He then looks over to the X-jet and see's everyone else standing there.

"I'm sorry, all of you" Scott said, "Professor, I just—you know, I….I made some bad choices. Scott said.

"More like misinformed choices" Charles said, "But we owe you our lives, both you and your brother"

* * *

Toad grunted where he was standing with the rest of the Brotherhood, "I wonder what's gonna happen to us?" he asked.

"2 metal spheres shot out of that asteroid before it blew. Mystique is out there. Believe it, and she'll be back" Lance said.

* * *

"So much for Havok huh?" Alex told his brother.

Scott laughed, "Yeah. Ah, the white hair looked lousy on you anyway"

"Hey Scott, if nothing else, at least I have my brother back. And that's what really matters to me." Alex said.

"Yeah, me too. And I promise, nothing is ever going to split us up again." Scott hugged his little brother.

"With time Alex, your powers will emerge on their own. And if you'll allow, we will be there to help you along the way. All of us, together, unified, cause we are the x-men" The professor said proudly.


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 36

_The call_

**At the Institute**

A few days had passed since the X-men foiled Magneto's plans, and everything they did in the past few months seemed to just consume their lives.

After all they've been through. Encounters with the Brotherhood. Traveling to the Underworld. And all the other crazy adventures they had. It seemed that they would finally catch a break from all that and school as well. They had the whole summer ahead of them to relax and enjoy themselves.

Dean right now was finishing his workout before he went to the beach with his friends. Even though it was summer, Dean could never allow himself to slack off. Plus he would use every chance he could get to get stronger, so he can beat Daken.

After Dean finished his workout he made his way upstairs. Right as he was about to enter his room he hears Kurt call him.

"Hey Dean!" Kurt called out.

Dean followed the sound of his voice and it led him to Kurt standing over one of the phones, "What is it?" Dean asked.

"Someone's one the phone asking for you" Kurt said handing him the phone.

"Ok" Dean took the phone and put it to his ear, "Hello?"

"Ah Dean, it's good to finally get in touch with you" he heard a familiar voice.

"Sensei?" Dean asked. That sounded like Dan Inosanto.

"It's time" Mr. Inosanto said.

Dean understood completely, "When should I leave?" he asked.

"As soon as possible" Mr. Inosanto said.

"Then I'll see you soon" Dean said before hanging up the phone.

"Who was it?" Kurt asked.

Dean was caught in his own thoughts and didn't pay attention to Kurt.

"Hello Dean? What's going on?" Kurt asked trying to get his attention.

"I'm leaving" Dean said flat out.

"To go where?" Kurt asked.

"California, Dan Inosanto is ready for me. I need to make a phone call." Dean walked away and dialed a number on his cell phone.

Kurt was sort of speechless. Was he leaving for good?

* * *

A couple of days later everyone had noticed Dean had begun to start spending more time alone away from everyone. Something that is unlike him. But nobody could figure out why, not even Jean had gotten a chance to get an answer out of him.

Kurt was in the kitchen eating a snack and watching TV when Scott, Rogue, and Kitty walk in.

"Hey Kurt!" Scott greeted his friend.

"Hey" Kurt says back sounding downbeat playing with his food.

"Like what's up?" Kitty asked him having picked up on his down beat tone.

"Yeah why tha long face?" Rogue asked.

"Dean" he says simply.

"What about him?" Scott asked curiously.

"You mean you don't know" Kurt said somewhat surprised, had he been the only one Dean told.

"Know what?" Scott asked him.

Kurt breaks the possibly sad news to his friends, "Dean might be leaving"

"What?!" Rogue almost screams. No, no. He can't be leaving. He wouldn't do that. She won't believe it.

"Why would he be leaving?" Scott asked utterly perplexed. Dean seemed perfectly happy the other day, he fit in here. He's a part of the group now so it didn't make sense to Scott.

Kurt told them what Dean had said when he finished his call.

"The guy that trained him for a week is calling him back?" Kitty asked to be clear.

"Ya, and for who knows how long" Kurt said.

"We should at least consult the Professor so he knows" Scott said.

* * *

Dean was walking back to the mansion from a long walk he took to think things over, he had felt like being alone and walking.

He was going to leave in a couple of days, there was no doubt about that, he is just sad that he won't get to spend the summer at the Institute. Come to think of it this was going to be the first summer he didn't spend in Europe for a long time. But the trip is worth it, once Dean finishes his training all he'll have to focus on is his physical attributes.

Dean sighed. How did everything in his life change so quickly? He's lucky that he was able to adapt to this sort of life pretty quickly. The mutant thing, then the half-blood thing. Well to be fair the whole half-blood thing brought tons of baggage with it. But still, he would have never thought he would one day end up like this. Dean can only wonder where this road might lead him one day, maybe becoming a world known hero. Nah, that seems too cliché for Dean.

He revisits the spot where a few months ago he found his gauntlets.

'**_Have you come for guidance?_**' He hears Zeus's voice in his head.

"Well…..not exactly" Dean spoke out loud, "More like a request"

'**_Which is?_**' Zeus asked.

"Do you think you can hold up on the challenges thing until after I'm done with my training?" Dean asked.

'**_I believe it would be more suitable for you to finish your training first, that way you can be at your best_**' Zeus said.

Dean smiled, "Thank you" he walked away.

He enters through the front doors to find Jean siting on the stairs for some reason.

"Finally!" She said somewhat exasperated as she moves over to Dean, takes him by the arm and starts leading him, "Where have you been?" she asked him sounding a little annoyed.

"Um, walking home" he lamely responds not sure what is going on. He can't be that late can he?

Dean looks at Jean trying to read her face so he doesn't really pay attention to where she is leading him until they walk into the lounge where he finds everyone. Now he really has no idea what is going on. "Hey guys, what's going on?" he asked.

"I've been told you plan to leave Dean, is this true?" Charles asked.

"Yeah, why? Is that a problem?" Dean asked.

"Goodness no, you may leave whenever you wish, as long as I know." Charles said.

"Well I do plan to leave, within the week. And I don't know when I'm coming back" Dean said. He needs to do this, especially with Daken constantly reminding him of how much he's behind.

"But what about summah vacation?" Rogue asked.

"Look, there will be other years, this won't be the last summer" Dean said.

"But—"Jean was interrupted.

"Look it's the kids decision, case closed" Logan said.

"I'm gonna go" Dean said.

"As long as this doesn't interfere with your schooling" Charles said.

"I'll do my best to finish before school" Dean assured him.

The doorbell rang all of a sudden.

"Now who could that be?" Charles said rolling to the door.

They all followed.

Dean opened the door and let Forge in.

"Forge, I was not expecting you" Charles said.

"Well that's because Dean here called me" Forge said.

"I asked him to come here to help me with something" Dean said.

"Help you with what?" Logan asked curiously.

"You'll see" Dean said with a grin.

**At the Hideout**

Tim, Billy, and Jon were playing a friendly game of pool, or at least they were trying to. Lilith wanted to watch them squabble.

"YOU'RE GOING TO MISS THIS!" Billy said trying to distract Tim from making the red "3" ball.

Tim simply ignored Billy and made the shot. The white ball bounced off of the borders 3 times avoiding the other balls and knocked the red "3" ball in the corner hole.

"DANMIT!" Billy shouted.

"I'm telling you, it's all about where you hit the ball" Tim said with a smile.

"I still think it's about the power" Jon said aiming his rod and accidentally hitting the white ball with too much force resulting in it flying off the table and landing in a wall.

"Oh come on already!" Jon complained.

Billy grabbed the ball and removed it from the wall which left a ball-sized gap right next to 6 other similar marks on the wall.

"I can't play pool with you anymore" Billy complained as he passed Tim the white ball "It's no fun losing all the time"

Tim caught the white ball and put it back on the pool table and aimed his rod, "It's not my fault I'm so good at it" he hit the white ball which knocked the 3 remaining balls in different holes one after the other.

"You see what I mean?! That's so stupid" Billy pouted.

Lilith couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Billy getting his ass kicked in pool.

"It's not funny!" Billy yelled at her.

Lilith laughed harder, "It totally is"

Tim chalked his rod, "Hey Lilith why don't you play a little?" he asked.

"Me, play with you?" she asked before laughing, "I wouldn't want to embarrass you in front of everyone" she said in a cocky tone.

"Oh really?" Tim eyed her carefully, "Well I'm calling your bluff. I think you're scared to face me." He said with a grin.

Lilith replied with her own grin, "Alright tough guy, show me what you got then" she grabbed a rod.

"I'll even let you break since I'm nice" Tim said setting up the triangle of balls.

"Big mistake on your part" she said aiming her rod, "Now watch carefully" she hit the white ball which knocked into the triangle of balls with amazing precision. Every ball went in a hole and even the black "8" ball went in last to secure her victory. She blew the tip of her rod like it was a gun, "Bang-bang"

All three boy teens were dumbstruck at what just happened.

Jon and Billy start laughing their asses off.

"She beat you with one move dude!" Billy said laughing.

"So much for being good!" Jon said also laughing.

Tim would have accepted the fact that Lilith is better than him honorably but with the way John and Billy are acting he can't help but feel extremely pissed.

"Hey what did I miss?" Dean asked walking in wondering what all the laughing is about.

"Nothing" Tim said looking pissed as hell, "Nothing at all"

"Nothing as in you just got your ass handed to you by a girl" Lilith said making fun of him and making Billy and Jon laugh even more.

"You know what, I'm not even going to bother" Dean said taking a seat.

Seeing Lilith spend time with the guys still seemed foreign to him, it would take some getting used to. She finally decided to stay with them over a week ago, it seemed that she just couldn't stay away from this place, although for what exact reason none of them know for sure. All they know for now is that she's here to stay.

"So what brings you here, _Achilles_?" Lilith said slightly teasing Dean.

Dean ignores her attempt to get a reaction out of him, "Well I came to stop by and tell you my plans for the immediate future." Dean said.

"Which are?" Tim asked.

"I'm leaving tomorrow" Dean said flat out.

Billy was drinking a can of beer and spit it out from surprise, "Wait what?"

"Where are you going?" Lilith asked.

"I'm going to California, to finish my training." Dean said. Dean went through the details of his past visit there and filled in any information that they were missing.

"Oh so that's why." Jon said finally getting it, "Don't you think you know enough fighting styles already?" he asked.

"I'll never stop wanting to learn more, but I feel it necessary to at least know my favorite one" Dean said.

"How long will you be gone?" Tim asked.

"I have no idea, as long as it takes" Dean said meaning every word.

"Aw great, this is where it starts" Billy said, "First he goes, then somebody else leaves, and then we split up and we're back to the old boring life of before" Billy sounded paranoid.

Dean chuckled, "Relax Billy, I'll come back as soon as I'm done" he reassured him.

"Aw man and I was looking forward to the summer, it would have been so fun too" Jon pouted.

"I'm sure there will be other ones" Dean said.

"I think it's good that you're going" Lilith said surprising them, "You should do it, and don't let anyone stop you"

Dean smiled, "Thank you. Finally someone who supports me"

Dean takes a second to speak to Lilith privately.

"So what do you need?" she asked.

"I need you to continue training them while I'm gone" Dean said referring to Jon, Tim, and Billy.

"But I don't know most of those styles that you're teaching them though" Lilith brought up a good point.

"All you need to do is make sure they don't slack off. And maybe you can teach them how to properly fight with weapons." Dean suggested.

Lilith made a face to make it look like she was thinking about it. "Sure, sounds like fun" she said bumping his shoulder.

"Thanks a lot" Dean said fist bumping her.

* * *

After spending the rest of the day with his half-blood friends Dean returned home a bit late. The next day he was up and about bright and early getting his things ready for his trip. He remembered that he'd asked Forge for a favor and decided to inspect his progress.

Dean went downstairs into a room specifically designed for 'creation', Forge already seemed quite fond of the room.

He found him toying and tinkering with a couple of gadgets and other things until he stopped, "It's finished" he simply said.

"Well then what do ya got for me?" Dean said walking towards him.

Forge sat up from his workstation and showed Dean a black mechanical belt of some sort, "It's a personal gravity device" Forge said, "You put one on and adjust the dial and it'll create a personal gravity field around you. It has the same effect on the individual of being in a gravity chamber but is fully portable."

"How durable is it?" Dean asked.

"I used the strongest metals we had in the institute on them so they will stand up to a lot of damage but do try and prevent anyone crushing this thing cause I won't be making a trip to California to give you another one." Forge said.

Dean laughed, "Ok. This will be great. How high up does it go?" he asked.

"This one is just the prototype and it will only go up to 10 because I don't want you going crazy with this thing." Forge said.

Dean eyes him carefully, "I know when to stop ya know"

Forge smiled, "But I'm sure I'll be able to improve on the gravity technology to make them go higher in time."

"Well eventually I hope to go higher than 10, but that's in the future. For now let's test it." Dean said putting it on.

Dean adjusted it to 5x earth's normal gravity and waited. A few seconds later Dean felt the difference but due to his training he didn't seem affected.

"Does it work?" Forge asked questioning his own device.

"Yeah it works fine" Dean said moving around the room.

"It doesn't look like it works" Forge said.

"Well that's because I've been using 5x earth's normal gravity quite often" Dean said nonchalantly.

Forge looked at him with an amazed look, "You know, you are something else"

Dean laughed, "Thanks, I've been told so. Do I need to change the batteries every so often?" Dean asked.

"Oh no you won't need to bother with that. I've installed mini solar panels on it so the battery can recharge while you use it" Forge said pointing to the black squares on the belt. "Handy right?"

"Very" Dean said truly impressed, "I owe you one"

"You owe me two" Forge said reminding him the first time he built him the gravity simulator.

"I won't forget" Dean said genuinely. He turned off the belt and took it off, "Well I better finish getting ready, see ya later" Dean said walking out.

* * *

A couple of hours later Dean stood outside the mansion with a book bag slipped over his shoulder. He was saying his goodbyes to everyone.

It was Jean's turn to say her goodbye. "I'll miss you being around" she said.

"I know you will" Dean said giving her a small kiss on her lips. That seemed to get a small but unnoticed reaction out of Scott and Rogue.

And somehow Rogue was the last to say her goodbye, "Good luck wonder boy" she said using her nickname for him.

"I don't need luck" he winked at her.

"Is that all ya takin with ya?" she asked referring to his small book bag.

"I only took what I needed" Dean said.

"Then ah guess you're off" Rogue said.

Dean got on his bike and started it up, "I will be back, I promise" he said with a smile to them all right before driving off.

Authors note: And so ends Season 1, but don't worry Dean's journey isn't finished. To be continued...


End file.
